In 2024, “traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji mold in Japan” was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, earning global recognition as a cultural form that should be preserved for future generations. We spoke with HIRAIDE Toshie, who has devoted herself to promoting Japanese sake culture throughout the world, about the appeal of Japanese sake and how to enjoy it.
You’ve been working to promote sakearound the world. Could you tell us how you got into this field?
While working as a flight attendant for a Japanese airline, I earned a sommelier certification from the Japan Sommelier Association in 1992 and then got my Senior Sommelier certification in 1997. As I interacted with various wine professionals overseas, exchanging information on sake, I felt keenly how little awareness there was of sake. However, I came to feel strongly that sake is something we could be proud of and show to the world. I started working to promote sake with the desire to make Japanese sake, our country’s leading brewed alcoholic beverage, as world-renowned as wine, and to attract inbound visitors to the regions where sake breweries are located.
In doing so, I thought that if the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a world-class wine education institution, could offer a sake-related certification course, it would raise recognition ofsake, and at the same time we could train the human resources who could promote and educate people overseas about sake. In 2003, we planned and realized a Japanese sake seminar at the WSET’s London headquarters with a group of volunteer kuramoto.1 Through a connection with a wine expert we met during the seminar, the Japan Sake Brewers Youth Council, a national organization of young sake brewers, became our partner, and in 2007, we were able to establish the Sake category at the International Wine Challenge (IWC),2 which is held in London and is the world’s largest wine competition. I believe that establishing the Sake category in such a respected competition represented an opportunity to create global value. As it turned out, in 2014, WSET SAKE started up at WSET in London as an international course and qualification for learning about sake, serving as a global standard for sake knowledge. The course is currently being held in 26 countries and 3 regions, among the 74 countries represented in WSET.
Thanks in part to your efforts, sake has become more familiar overseas in recent years. In particular, since around 2010, sake export volume has been increasing. What is the reason for and background to the so-called sake boom overseas?
Exports of Japanese sake have been increasing over the past few years. According to the Japan Sake Brewers Association, which has around 1,700 member breweries throughout Japan, the total value of sakeexport in fiscal year 2022 (January to December) reached about 47.5 billion yen, to record a 13th consecutive year-on-year increase. In that same year, export volume also reached a record high of 35,895 kiloliters. (Source for both statistics: Ministry of Finance, Japanese Government) This is thanks to the hard work of each kuramoto. In order to produce sake that is more acceptable overseas, more kuramoto are increasing the amount of yeast and maintaining the sake-like flavor, while brewingsake with a wine-like drinkability by slightly reducing alcohol content. However, in the context of the global wine market, the sake market is still too small to call it “booming.” However, I’m sure that we can still expand it going forward.
Please tell us about the features and appeal of sake compared to wine and other alcoholic beverages.
Since the quality of wine is greatly impacted by the quality of the grapes each year, vintage wine prices vary greatly depending on the year it was made. Sakeis also affected by the quality of the rice crop of a given year, but compared to wine, there are fewer year-to-year quality differences. I think this is mostly due to the fact that the person in charge of production, called the toji,3 puts their heart and soul into making sure that sake quality does not vary from year to year. Last December (2024), “traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji mold in Japan” was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. I want to promote the value of this traditional brewing process, which uses koji and differs from that of wine, to people all over the world.
Please tell us how to get deeper enjoyment from sake, for example, from food pairings with both Japanese and Western cuisine, and how to choose sake cups.
When I drink sake with non-Japanese people, I try to use wine glasses. The Japanese style of drinking sake by pouring a small amount into an ochoko4is fine, but since it’s similar to the way people drink spirits like whiskey and brandy overseas, it could give people the mistaken impression that sake, too, is a distilled liquor. I recommend drinking sake in a wine glass to savor its unique aroma as a brewed beverage.
In terms of food pairing, sake is definitely easier to pair than other brewed liquors, and with a greater variety of dishes. This could be because its raw material is rice. It is easy to see when you try pairing sake with foods that are said to be difficult to pair with wine. For example, they say that red wine doesn’t go with omelets and other egg dishes, but sake goes quite smoothly with them. Also, it’s common knowledge among food connoisseurs that champagne goes well with caviar and French Chablis5goes with oysters. Well, sake is a perfect match for fish roe, oysters, and other shellfish. There is also sparkling sake, so I encourage everyone to try these pairings.
In a sake course I teach for Japanese diplomats before they are sent overseas, I recommend having orange marmalade with daiginjo,6 which is one of the most aromatic types of sake and is sometimes considered difficult to pair with food. Such an unexpected pairing will probably surprise people outside Japan, so I recommend giving it a try if you get the chance.
Can you give us any recommendations for places or events where visitors to Japan can enjoy sake?
In Japan, you can easily enjoy sake at popular izakaya7 all over the country, but if someone is going to come all the way over to Japan, then I recommend they visit a sake brewery that welcomes visitors from overseas. Japan has many traditional sake breweries with long histories of over 100 years, comparable to the chateaus in famous wine-producing regions in other countries. I hope that people will visit them to experience Japan’s traditional skills and history.
Nationally famous sake events are also held in Japan’s sake-producing regions. These include the Niigata Sake no Jin held in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture in early March and Kashima Sakagura Tourism® held in Kashima City, Saga Prefecture at the end of March. Kashima City has a brand that became champion at the world-class wine competition I mentioned before. This event is a walking festival that got its start thanks to the area where the brewery is located also getting global attention from its brand’s success. The Sake Festival held in Saijo, Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture in mid-October, is also famous, and other regions around the country hold their own festivals as well.
In addition, the Sake category of the wine competition I mentioned includes the sub-category of futsu-shu,8 which is not only delicious but also surprisingly affordable, which is why it is favored by the locals. You can truly sense their pride for the sake breweries that shoulder responsibility for their region. This local futsu-shu is not available in the Tokyo metro area, so when visiting the countryside, I highly recommend trying the local futsu-shu. Doing so allows you to feel the enthusiasm of local breweries for making sakeand the high quality of their brew.
With the goal of increasing sake’s value worldwide, you are working to promote global development and attract inbound customers. Please share with us your thoughts on how to develop sake overseas.
I want to share the appeal of Japan through sake. Sake is made from rice and water, and uses a great deal of water. You need water to produce rice, which is the raw material for sake, and they say that the sake production process uses about 10 times as much water as the sake that is produced. In other words, the reason that sake breweries have been able to exist all over Japan since ancient times and that sake is still being made at many of them today is due to the fact that Japan is blessed with clean water; we can harvest good quality rice every year; and this rich natural environment has been preserved for hundreds of years. These are the important things.
In addition, it is not unusual for kuramoto where sake brewing has been passed down through the generations as a family business to have been operating for more than 100 years, or even 200 to 300 years. The background behind sake is the history of the kuramoto that have preserved their family business in each region. Each kuramoto is sincerely engaged in sake brewing, taking on the responsibility for techniques and traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation. When I watch these kuramoto, I strongly feel that sake is packed with the charm of the Japanese people, with their strong sense of responsibility, as well as the appeal of the culture and natural features of Japan. I will be happy if I am able to convey this even in some small way to the people of other countries.
- 1. The owner of a sake brewery or brewing company, or the brewery itself.
- 2. International Wine Challenge. A global wine competition that is held every April in London, U.K.
- 3. The master brewer in charge of sake-making. Also, an artisan who makes sake.
- 4. A small sake cup that can be drunk in one sip
- 5. A white wine made from Chardonnay grapes in the Chablis region of Burgundy in east-central France.
- 6. A specific classification of refined sake. It is a ginjo-shu made from white rice polished to at least a 50% ratio, and has particularly nice luster and color.
- 7. An establishment that serves sake and food with tables with seats as well as small tatami rooms, as in the old days when sake used to be served in front of liquor stores, a practice called izake.
- 8. Futsu-shu is a type of sake that is not classified with a specific name, such as ginjo-shu, junmai-shu, or honjozo-shu. It is relatively inexpensive, and is popular as everyday sake for meals at home and recreational use.
By MOROHASHI Kumiko
Photo: Co-op SACHI Ltd.; PIXTA
