Japanese sake rides an export boom to USA

Kirk Spitzer | USA TODAY

NIIGATA, Japan — Two thousand years after Japanese brewers figured out how to make a pleasing, potent fermented beverage from a handful of rice, the rest of the world is catching on to Japanese sake.

Exports of Japan’s national drink reached a record $94 million last year and are on pace for a new high this year. More than a third goes to the United States. With trade barriers expected to fall under the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, an export boom could be in the offing.

“Sake is experiencing unprecedented popularity right now. And it’s just starting. I think we’ll be seeing five-fold, 10-fold increases (in exports) in the coming years,” said John Gauntner, author of The Sake Handbook.

And just in time, too.

Changing tastes and an aging population have driven down sake consumption in Japan for the past several decades. Beer, wine and distilled beverages are now the preferred drink for many Japanese hitting bars and restaurants after a hard day’s work.

Overall production of sake in Japan has dropped by more than half since the 1980s, to fewer than 159 million gallons last year, according to the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association.

Some 2,500 breweries were churning out sake in the mid-1980s. But only 1,500 or so remain in business today, according to Japan’s National Tax Agency.

“Sake consumption has been declining for the last 30 or 40 years and is still a bit stagnant. But the popularity is increasing, especially for the high-end products,” said Koichi Saura, president of the Urakasumi Sake Brewery, in northeastern Japan.

“Brewers have been working very hard to differentiate their product from the former period, and at the same time are trying to reach out to new consumers – the younger generation, women and (customers) overseas. Those efforts are beginning to show results now,” said Saura, whose family has run the Urakasumi brewery for 13 generations.

Sake exports began to rise in the early 2000s with the growing worldwide popularity of Japanese food and culture. Traditional Japanese cuisine, called “Washoku,” was added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013.

“The popularity of Washoku and Japanese culture has been growing all over the world, and that has led to a greater interest in sake, as well,” said Junko Toyoshima, a spokesperson at Imayo Tsukasa, a 250-year-old brewery in Niigata.

The Imayo Tsukasa brewery produced just 19,000 gallons of sake last year, down from more than 79,250 gallons annually in the 1980s. But most of the current production is higher-end sake that brings a higher price.

The company began shipping sake to customers in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, just a few years ago and is looking at the United States next, Toyoshima said.

Nationwide, exports of Japanese sake climbed from $43 million in 2005 to $94 million last year. Exports to the United States grew from $21 million to almost $34 million during the same period.

Americans in particular tend to buy higher-end, higher-priced sake, according to Yoshiro Okamoto, vice chairman of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association. The average price of sake exported to the United States is about $9 a liter — twice the price of the average sake sold in Japan, Okamoto said.

“Our No. 1 export country is the USA. They drink sake very much, with sushi and Washoku. We think that’s a big opportunity for us,” Okamoto said.

Sake brewing is a complex process that requires grinding, or “polishing,” away the outer portion of rice kernels, converting starch to sugar, and fermenting the result. Different flavors and aromas can be achieved with different varieties of rice, water, degree of polishing and differences in fermenting and brewing techniques. At least 95 different kinds of sake rice are grown in Japan.

Exporters have begun to market sake as an alternative to wine, pairing different varieties with different types of food, Gauntner said.

“Wine professionals are starting to take sake seriously and that has helped tremendously," he said. "It used to be very unusual to see a sake tasting (event) — now there’s a major event being held somewhere in Japan or the United States every week.”