Twenty-five years ago, as Coolio topped the US charts and let us take a look around his Gangsta’s Paradise, on the other side of the world, just 3.3m bold adventurers chose to visit Japan as their holiday destination, ranking it a lowly 34th most visited country.
Ten years later, visitor numbers were over twice that and, despite a blip in growth due to the Fukushima incident almost a decade ago, Japan’s popularity hasn’t looked back.
One of the main reasons for this has been the popularity of Japanese food. And what goes well with all that yakitori, sashimi and okonomiyaki goodness? Well, beer of course, but also sake. In 2019 the sake export market was ¥23.4bn (up 25% from just two years earlier), more than triple that of 2009, with the largest importer being the United States, with China and Hong Kong second and third.
Continue reading “Guest Post: The Challenges Of Making Sake Outside Of Japan (Part 1)”
Yamato Magazine 