Sake - Japanology Plus | NHK WORLD-JAPAN

*First broadcast on August 28, 2025 Sake is enjoying a global boom, but in Japan, breweries are facing a crisis as consumption falls. We explore the future of sake through artisanal skills, technology, and a new generation's efforts.

In 2013, washoku was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

This helped raise the global profile of sake.

helping spark a global boom for sake.

and breweries find themselves being forced to close.

and some exciting possibilities for Japan's national drink.

Hello, and welcome to Japanology Plus. I'm Peter Barakan.

People sometimes ask me if I'm responsible for the topics on Japanology.

which is what we're going to be talking about today.

but here in Japan, consumption is down, and so is the number of sake breweries.

which is causing some concern in the sake industry.

Let me introduce our guest on the program today.

Hosaka-san, thank you very much for joining us.

Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me on the program.

a professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Agriculture.

He's a leading expert in sake brewing science.

In addition to conducting research, he's actively involved in promoting sake.

Now, I understand that there is actually a definition of what constitutes sake.

in Japanese, as “nihonshu,” meaning “Japanese sake.”

while the latter is referred to as Japanese sake.

Anyway, currently in Japan, there are just over 1,000 sake breweries.

If you add up all the sakes they make, there are around 15,000 types.

with varying climates, landscapes, and food cultures.

It has both mountains and coastal areas.

which I think is a defining characteristic of sake.

Yep. Endless variety, endless fascination.

It's the licensed breweries in each region that have supported this tradition.

Traditionally, sake brewing is overseen by a toji, or master brewer.

This person has ultimate responsibility for managing the whole brewing process.

to determine the taste of the sake produced at their brewery.

The main ingredient of sake is Japan's staple food: rice.

First, the rice is polished with a milling machine to remove the outer layers.

resulting in sweeter and more fragrant sake.

Next, the polished rice is washed in water and steamed.

What follows is the critical stage in sake brewing.

Koji mold is sprinkled on to some of the rice.

This mold propagates to make a rice malt known as kome-koji.

and is the source of the sweetness and umami flavor of sake.

it is put into the fermentation tank together with water and the steamed rice.

Now, another key element enters the picture: yeast.

it helps determine the taste and aroma of a sake.

the alcohol content has risen to around 20 percent.

a sake unique to each brewery is born.

Our first stop is a 130-year-old brewery in Kyoto.

Their guide today is the 13th-generation head of this brewery, Saito Hiroshi.

So all of these tanks are presumably full of sake.

What part of the process are they in right now?

then left in these tanks for around one year, tightly sealed with a lid.

with a bacteria called “hiochi” that spoils the sake.

and prevents the sake from oxidizing.

We do this to create good conditions for the sake to mature.

And do each of these tanks have different types of sake in them?

These tanks hold sake in the junmai and honjozo categories.

Sake is divided into three main categories according to the rice polishing ratio.

How do these sakes differ in taste and aroma?

It's not a style with an elaborate fragrance.

It has a fairly strong, kind of deep taste with lots of umami.

- It's a very traditional type of sake. - Yes.

to 70 percent or less of its original size.

Then up to 10 percent of brewing alcohol is added.

is that it makes the sake clean... and refreshing.

And this is polished down to how many percent?

Our honjozo's rice polishing ratio is 65 percent.

made with rice with a polishing ratio of 60 percent or less.

This sake has a polishing ratio of 55 percent.

The rice is polished down a little beyond the required amount.

is that there is something called the “shinpaku” at its center.

there are fewer off-tastes in the sake, resulting in better flavor and mouthfeel.

Basically, the more the outer rice is polished away, the higher the sake grade.

This sake also has no added alcohol.

is to polish down to at least 50 percent.

with a polishing ratio of 35 percent.

If you look at how the rice grains vary, you'll see that the size is different.

You can see the white part in the center.

This has that distinctive ginjo flavor.

I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It's a little... not exactly sweet.

There's kind of a fruitiness to it.

It's something that other alcoholic beverages don't have.

Wines don't have so much variation in umami.

Because there's a lot of variety in both wine and beer as well.

if beer has one unit, wine has about two.

Really? Four times as much as wine?

That's why it's rich in flavor and goes well with various foods.

They're going to compare sake and wine by pairing each with cheese.

Please try the wine first and taste how well they go together.

Hmm, that's a fairly sturdy cheese too.

I think I might need to get used to it.

You're so used to the balance of the cheese and the wine.

It's just, you know... it's something that everybody does all the time.

Cheese and sake. But that's actually the first time I've done it.

I mean, I eat cheese a lot, and I drink sake a lot, but probably not together.

compared with wine or beer, for example?

is that its production differs slightly from that of other alcoholic drinks.

For wine, grapes are the main ingredient.

Yeast turns the grape sugar directly into alcohol.

In other words, you can make wine just with alcoholic fermentation.

rice doesn't contain sugar but does have a source of sugar, which is starch.

The starch is turned into sugar using koji.

Then the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol.

That happens at the same time in one fermentation tank.

Saccharification and alcoholic fermentation proceed simultaneously.

and a high alcohol content of 16 or 18 percent.

sake brewing was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

using techniques passed down through generations.

But today, there are only ten tanekojiya left in the whole of Japan.

The two have come to a long-established tanekojiya in Kyoto.

- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

Sukeno Akihiko is the proprietor of this over-300-year-old business.

Can you explain to us what it is that you do here?

We are what's called a tanekojiya and have two main lines of work.

Storing koji mold and producing koji starters for commercial purposes.

Sukeno showed us some of his koji starter culture.

These are koji starters, sorted by color.

Broadly, they are divided into four colors.

The green one is mainly for sake, mirin, and vinegar.

It is also used for miso and soy sauce.

The white one is used for things like miso and amazake... and recently, salt koji.

The black one and the orange one are used for shochu and Okinawan awamori.

So there are various koji starters for various uses.

We sell these under the Japanese name of tanekoji.

This is the koji mold that we store here.

We preserve the mold like this so that we can provide a steady supply.

However, koji mold is a living organism, so at some point its lifespan ends.

Here, we re-propagate the mold around every ten years or so.

we grow spores in petri dishes like these.

and grow them on actual rice in order to decide if they're good or bad.

And how do you make that judgment? What's it based on?

We take from the darker part where the spores seem closely packed.

- Like this part here. - Oh, this bit here.

And you supply this koji to breweries all over Japan?

Not just sake brewers, but miso and soy sauce makers too.

In total, our koji starters are used by around 2,000 businesses.

OK, so if companies like yours didn't exist, then we would have no more sake.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but yes.

and for all kinds of traditional Japanese fermented food products.

has developed alongside Japan's food culture and rice culture.

recognized koji mold as Japan's “national mold.”

Since then, it has been very strictly handled.

but now, it cannot be easily exported.

It supports Japan's fermentation culture.

here in Japan, consumption has been decreasing year by year.

and breweries are going out of business.

and expand the possibilities of sake brewing.

In 2023, a new sake brewery opened here in Eiheiji, Fukui Prefecture.

formed a capital partnership with a Hong Kong-based company.

Unusually, this brewery makes sake exclusively for export.

The sake is made from scratch to suit the preferences of overseas customers.

Yoshida Yukari is the brewing company's president.

she decided to expand her business abroad.

to enhance the value of sake while promoting it globally.

I saw it as a wonderful opportunity.

However, the Hong Kong side had an unexpected request.

They wanted her to develop a new sake without any bitter taste.

The problem is, sake definitely needs some bitterness.

Without that, it inevitably ends up tasting somewhat flat.

But they really didn't like that bitterness.

The brewery's toji spent two years experimenting.

and succeeded in creating a clean-tasting sake.

considerably higher than sake for the domestic market.

and the company now exports to places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China.

the brewery has done its best to create a comfortable work environment.

removing the need for night shifts.

some sake brands are increasing their sales and gathering praise.

For example, local sake from Tochigi Prefecture.

at long-established Japanese sake competitions.

Behind this rapid success is a bold innovation.

in Tochigi Prefecture called the Shimotsuke Toji.

staying at the breweries only during the brewing season.

Matsui Nobutaka became a Shimotsuke Toji 13 years ago.

He is the fifth-generation head of a 160-year-old brewery.

in Niigata Prefecture to produce sake.

the brewery's ability to keep making sake was threatened.

and decided to try to overcome the crisis by becoming toji themselves.

A small brewery like ours won't make much of an impact alone.

is far more effective than breweries acting alone.

as a way to improve sake-brewing techniques.

things that had previously been trade secrets.

and clarified the steps required to become a Shimotsuke Toji.

supporting Tochigi's sake industry.

breweries have created a new type of sake called “craft sake.”

and can use other production techniques as well.

The two have come to a brewery that serves the craft sake that it makes there.

It's in a housing complex in Takatsuki, Osaka.

Owner Adachi Yoji is a toji himself.

Thank you for letting us come in here today.

and I've never seen any craft sake, to be quite honest.

What kind of things do you add to it?

- Cinnamon? - Yeah, cinnamon... star anise...

grown and picked in this housing complex.

So this sake is basically from right here.

Buntan. That's kind of... a bit like grapefruit, isn't it?

So grapefruit and tangerine mixed...

It has a sort of fresh... fruity...

Yes. Just a touch of effervescence to make it easy to drink.

but it has just a little bit of that edge to it, doesn't it?

It has an alcohol content of 8 percent, which is around half that of sake.

I think craft sake can be a gateway for them to develop an appreciation of sake.

So how did you come up with the idea of making craft sake in the first place?

but in practice, the industry is virtually closed to newcomers.

the regulations are different and more relaxed.

It's relatively easy to obtain a license.

not a single new sake brewery has been allowed in for 70 years.

However, this restriction does not apply to craft sake.

And you chose this place in this housing estate... seems rather an odd choice.

but many of them have stopped drinking sake.

But if it's low-alcohol sake, like this one at only 8 percent, they can drink it.

And many are actually enjoying it now.

What are your thoughts on our day visiting sake breweries?

It was interesting, and it was fun, and the sake was great.

and all of that... how that relates to sake making.

So next time I have my sake, I shall be thinking different things as well.

Right now, sake making in Japan is in a period of change.

The future is uncertain for the traditional methods of sake production.

The younger generation is starting to move toward a new way of making sake.

At the same time, there are fresh efforts to promote the appeal of sake.

and if it's shared more with the world, that's even more wonderful.