On the first day that the expo was opened to buyers, Japanese stalls were crowded with potential clients looking to get a shot glass-sized sampling of sake or a mouthful of Japan-grown rice.
Akinori Oishi, general manager of Ikekame Shuzo, said the Fukuoka-based brewery’s overseas sales have grown 150 per cent over the past five years, with China leading the growth.
Other Japanese liquor vendors at the fair echoed Oishi’s enthusiasm for the potential of the rice-based wine in the Chinese market.
Overall sake exports have tripled in the past decade to reach a record 22.2 billion yen (US$203 million) in 2018, according to trade data compiled by the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association.
Exports to China, ranked third after the United States and South Korea, reached 3.6 billion yen in 2018, up 0.24 per cent in volume from the previous year, making it the fastest growing market for sake exports.
This is despite China’s ban on food imports from Japan’s 10 prefectures including famous sake-producing areas like Niigata and Nagano prefectures. The ban was introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster over concerns regarding radioactive contamination.“One factor for our growth is that we didn’t have much business in China to begin with. But another is that since Japanese food became a part of Unesco World Heritage, Japanese restaurants have increased abroad, which has pushed sales of sake,” explained Oishi.
Washoku, or traditional Japanese cuisine, was registered on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2013.
Over the next four years, the number of Japanese restaurants in China tripled to 40,800, making China the country with the greatest number of Japanese restaurants abroad, according to the Japan External Trade Organisation.
Another factor in the growing popularity of Japanese alcoholic drinks is the increasing number of Chinese people who travel to Japan each year, according to an employee at the booth for sake giant Ozeki.
Once familiarised with sake during their visit, people are more likely to order the drink at Japanese restaurants in China, he explained, adding that Ozeki was returning to the expo for the second time after receiving a good response last year.
Demand for alcoholic beverages including the more pricey imported labels is rising thanks to the growing middle class in China.
Meanwhile, sake consumption in Japan is falling. In 2017, consumption was a third of what it was at its peak in 1973, according to the National Tax Agency.
While the declining population is partially to blame, sake sellers point to the younger generation’s lower consumption of alcohol. In 2016, those in their 20s drank much less than their parents’ generation, with only 14.5 per cent of men and 6.5 per cent of women saying they drank regularly.
“However, fruit liqueurs like umeshu remain popular in Japan and are expanding in China,” said Oishi, adding that his company sells more yuzu citrus- and plum-flavoured liqueurs than sake in China.
The Ozeki employee explained that “while sake can be an acquired taste, fruit-based liqueurs can be enjoyed by everyone and are very popular among women regardless of nationality.”
But some buyers have complained that sake and fruit liqueurs, which have an alcoholic content of around 15 per cent, are not strong enough, a man from a Japanese sake trading company said. The traditional Chinese spirit known as baijiu contains up to 50 per cent alcohol.
Others have found the higher price points of sake harder to sell on shelves as “a 2,000 yen bottle of sake becomes 5,000 yen in China.”
Because of this, the sake sellers explained, the majority of their sales to China will for the time being remain focused on Japanese restaurants and bars.
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