How Japan’s sake is winning over Gen Z

It is a drink with a pedigree dating back to ancient Japan.

Sake, the traditional rice wine also known as nihonshu, today ranks alongside sushi as one of Japan’s most famous exports. The mild, yellowish wine, which is usually around 15 per cent alcohol by volume, is becoming better known in Europe and the UK thanks to the increased interest in Japanese culture and food.

But for Japanese people, it is more than simply an alcoholic drink. Sake has been brewed in Japan for centuries and was traditionally viewed as a gift from the deities. It was even the drink of choice for the 11th-century nobility in The Tale of Genji – Japan‘s most celebrated work of literature.

Made with traditional techniques by a specialist craftsperson known as a kurabito, and led by a toji – or chief sake maker, sake comes from rice, water, yeast, and koji mould, which is used to break down starches into sugar. Depending on the variety, sake can be drunk hot or cold.

These traditional techniques and the knowledge of sake-making were officially recognised in December by Unesco as part of Japan’s intangible cultural heritage.

Sake is “the culture and that spirits of Japanese people; the life blood of Japanese people,” says Rie Yoshitake, representative for the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association (JSS) in the UK and sake ambassador for the International Wine Challenge. “Through sake, you can explain or see everything: the rituals, habits, tradition.”

Today sake still plays an important role historically and culturally, in festivals, weddings and in celebrating other important life milestones.

However, in the past 50 years sake consumption has declined sharply. After the Second World War, there were about 7,000 sake breweries in Japan – now there are only around 1,300, according to the JSS. “And they are struggling,” says Ms Yoshitake. “So it’s not very good news for Japan. To be very honest, we’re really concerned about it.”

“The sake market in Japan has not been not good for half a century,” says Tsushima Kitahara, chairman of the Sake Samurai Secretariat and President of the Yamanashi Meijo brewery. Founded in 1750 on the island of Honshu, the brewery was part of the Emperor Meiji’s imperial tour in the 1880s.

“The biggest sake consumption here was 1973 – 51 years ago,” says Mr Kitahara. As of last year, it has plunged about 77 per cent and today, sake consumption makes up only 6 per cent of the Japanese alcoholic drink market.

The fall comes amid changing tastes, demographics and a proliferation of other alcoholic options, with many drinkers opting for more fashionable beer, whisky or a cocktail over “old-fashioned” sake, often seen in Japan as a drink for old men.

A rapidly ageing population in Japan who would have once drank sake can explain some of the fall, according to Ms Yoshitake. “These people don’t drink,” she says. In 2022, people aged over 65 made up about 30 per cent of the population.

But the main issue is that younger people aren’t drinking it either. “The young generation see it as old-fashioned,” Ms Yoshitake says.

Mr Kitahara agrees: “[In Japan] now the young generation don’t have any experience with sake. For younger generation, sake is a special drink for, say, 1 January. They have it in a sushi restaurant with sushi, but normally they don’t drink it. If they do they prefer a cocktail or whisky or something.”

Changing attitudes to alcohol globally among younger generations – particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic – also appear to have had a marked impact on sake consumption. Many Gen Z and millennials are cutting down their alcohol intake, or avoiding it entirely.

According to the JSS, the pandemic had a devastating impact on the industry, changing the habits of people in Japan and around the world, and “resulting in a significant decrease in the amount of sake being shipped and consumed”.

But brewers are not giving up so easily. Some are looking overseas, while many are coming up with novel ways to entice new and younger drinkers who may never have come across sake before and who might be more used to beer or a cocktail.

Some are trying new approaches to producing sake, using older techniques with new technologies. Many are developing new fruity or floral flavours (often called ginjo sake), as well as low-alcohol and sparkling versions to give sake a young and fashionable new image.

“There is a relatively new sake category, sparkling sake,” says Mr Kitahara. “It’s been getting more and more popular this year. We have to make the market for the younger generation from now. Some people like aged sake too [also a relatively new style of sake that has been aged for at least three years], as well as cocktail style, such as yuzu or plum sake, which we call crafted sake, which is much more common for foreign countries and the younger generation too.”

Internationally, sake has been widening its appeal, boosted by the growing international popularity of Japanese cuisine.

Ms Yoshitake says that in the past 20 years breweries have begun to expand into the overseas market, which currently makes up only about 5 per cent of Japan’s sake market.

However, in the past three years, exports have soared 70 per cent amid rising interest in Japanese culture and cuisine. The total volume of sake exports from Japan has almost doubled since 2014, rising from 16.3 million litres to 29.1 million in 2024, having hit a peak of 35.9 million litres in 2022, according to the JSS.

Sake is now exported to a record 75 countries, dominated by the United States, China and elsewhere in Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Although Europe is a small part of the market – about 2 per cent – the UK and France are the countries leading in Europe for sake production, says Ms Yoshitake.

In the year to March 2024 Berry Bros & Rudd, the UK’s oldest wine merchant, saw annual sales of sake increase 10-fold compared with the previous year, while Waitrose reported a 241 per cent rise in searches for its sakes. In October, hundreds of sake producers took part in the first Drink Japan event in London, and small sake breweries are popping up across the capital.

But brewers aren’t stopping there. Some are going intergalactic. One recently announced its plan to ferment sake on the International Space Station (ISS). Asahi Shuzo, which produces the popular brand Dassai, will conduct tests in a “special microgravity environment” to see how the change in gravity affects the fermentation process. If successful, the brewer has priced a 100ml bottle at ¥100 million (£513,000).

Now the country’s sake brewers and associations are hoping that their new Unesco listing will be the final springboard for restoring the image of sake.

Brewers hope this will be just the start of the industry’s renaissance, raising sake’s profile and tempting people to sample this slice of Japanese heritage.

For Mr Kitahara, the listing means the sake industry “can promote sake everywhere in the world. We feel very thankful.” He adds: “From now we have to go out to the world. It’s a strong help for our industry.”

Ms Yoshitake says: “We are very happy, because this gives us the special status. Because people don’t know sake yet. It’s very new in the UK still. So I hope this helps us push out the sake market into the world.”