Intangible Cultural Heritage Designation a Boon for Sake-Making

A Food Culture Born of Kōji

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the “Traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with kōji mold in Japan” referred to in the recent UNESCO designation are techniques built over years of experience by tōji master brewers and brewery workers in using kōji mold in making alcohol. The foundations for modern kōji use were established some 500 years ago. The methods for producing nihonshu, shōchū, awamori, mirin, and other traditional alcoholic products have been developed and adapted to the local climate of regions all over Japan. These drinks have also become essential parts of social and cultural practices like religious rites and weddings, and the traditional skills of making alcohol are essential supports for those practices.

In a broad sense, the word kōji refers to a grain or starch inoculated with one of variety of molds including Aspergillus, Mucor, and Rhizopus, and is an essential part of fermentation culture not only in Japan, but across East Asia. Its history is incredibly long, stretching back over thousands of years. A unique characteristic of making traditional alcoholic beverages in Japan is the use of kōji mold in the genus Aspergillus. This fungus is raised on rice, barley, or other starchy crops and converts that starch to sugar, which is then converted to alcohol by yeast. The parallel action of kōji mold and yeast creates amino acids, organic acids, aromatic compounds, and other elements that give traditional Japanese alcoholic drinks their flavor and depth. Nihonshu—the usual Japanese name for the brewed alcohol made from rice, rice kōji, yeast, and water—depends on kōji to bring out the natural umami of rice. The variety of kōji or the techniques used can greatly influence the flavor of nihonshu. For example, while the Aspergillus oryzae or yellow kōji typically used in making nihonshu results in a wide range of flavor profiles from refreshing to rich and full, mixing it with the white or black kōji species mostly used in making shōchū and awamori can bring unique acidity and savoriness to nihonshu.

Kōji mold is not only used in making alcohol such as nihonshu, shōchū, awamori, and mirin, it has also long been a part of making miso and shōyu, or soy sauce, essential parts of Japanese food culture. Today, many products with miso and shōyu, as well as kōji itself, have caught the attention of international chefs. In recent years, foods fermented with kōji have become popular overseas for their supposed health benefits and are becoming parts of dishes around the world. Some craft beer breweries in the West are also developing fusion brews using kōji, so the mold is showing up in a variety of places.

A Shrinking Domestic Market

In examining the situation of Japan’s domestic alcohol, we see that the overall alcohol market nationwide is contracting due to a variety of factors, including the shrinking and aging population, consumer preferences for lower prices, and changes in lifestyle and tastes. Traditional beverages like nihonshu, shōchū, and awamori in particular have suffered as new categories of alcohol, like beer, whisky, and liqueurs have widened the range of options for consumers and grown in popularity. Traditional alcohol production has also fallen. Taking nihonshu for example, production has fallen to less than 30% of its peak in 1973 as the domestic market has plummeted. Dividing that production by type, though, we see that the lower-priced futsūshu category is continuing to drop while more premium-priced products like junmai or junmai ginjō are seeing rising demand and production.

Positive Outlook with the “Washoku Boom”

At the same time, exports of Japanese-produced alcohol in general are growing year by year, driven by the international acclaim for products like nihonshu and Japanese whisky. Taken by product, exports are led by whisky, followed by nihonshu, liqueur, beer, gin/vodka, shōchū, then wine. The leading export destinations are China at ¥32.2 billion, followed by the United States at ¥23.7 billion and South Korea at ¥14.3 billion.

Among traditional alcohol, nihonshu stands in a very strong second place behind whisky. In 2013 overall export income was ¥10 billion, while in 2023 it had quadrupled to around ¥40 billion. Behind that shift is the December 2013 UNESCO registration of “Washoku: traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese” as intangible cultural heritage. According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, there were around 24,000 Japanese restaurants overseas in 2006, 89,000 in 2015, and 187,000 in 2023. UNESCO’s registration put international attention on Japanese cuisine, encouraging the increase in Japanese restaurants worldwide. Considering that exports of nihonshu began rising from around that same time, we can expect this new designation of traditional sake-making skills will put even more attention on Japan’s traditional use of kōji mold for alcohol fermentation and grow demand for nihonshu and other traditional Japanese alcohol internationally.

Unclear International Meaning of “Sake”

As global demand for “sake” grows, more and more breweries are producing their own overseas. Right now, the United States is leading at 40 breweries, with a total of 60 existing worldwide. Outside Japan, nihonshu, which must be made in Japan, or seishu, the legal designation for that beverage lacking a regional specification, is called “sake,” after the Japanese word meaning “alcoholic beverage.” Overseas, seishu and similar drinks are all called “sake,” but there is no clear definition of what that word actually refers to. For that reason, people overseas serve seishu with added flavors like fruit juice and call it “sake,” which leads to confusion over the term’s meaning.

In Japan, recent years have seen the appearance of something called “craft sake,” which differs from the conventional seishu as defined by the National Tax Agency. Craft Sake breweries have joined to form the Japan Craft Sake Breweries Association. The association defines craft sake as “a new genre of alcohol made from rice, utilizing production techniques based on traditional sake but incorporating methods that are not legally permitted in conventional sake brewing.” Legally, this means craft sake is a different category from nihonshu or seishu, which are defined as liquor brewed from rice, rice kōji, and water as its main raw materials. Since it is fermented with other ingredients, it falls under the “Other brewed liquors“ category. This development has been influenced by the fact that the NTA currently does not issue new sake brewing licenses, citing the Liquor Tax Law’s provision for a need to maintain a balance between supply and demand of alcoholic beverages in order to preserve liquor tax revenue levels.

So, that means the situation is doubly muddied. Nihonshu overseas is called by the general name “sake,” which lacks any clear global definition or common understanding, and the flavored drink produced in the United States and understood by local consumers as sake does not meet Japanese definitions of seishu. And, at the same time, there are more and more breweries in Japan creating this new domestic category of “craft sake.”

A Clear Definition and Enhanced Global Image

Looking at world-renowned alcoholic beverages such as Bordeaux and Burgundy wine, Champagne, German beer, and Scotch whisky, we see a history of famous brands built on strict regulations. From the medium- to long-term perspective, building Japan’s traditional alcoholic drinks into a global brand will require strict regulations and positioning. Or perhaps Japan’s traditional liquors could follow a different path from other internationally known drinks and embrace being adopted and adapted around the world. Either way, to turn these traditional drinks into global ones, they must have clear definitions and strategic and systemic discussions on how to create a global image. It is past time for those discussions to happen. From that viewpoint, I am convinced that Japan’s traditional sake brewing skills being recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage is a huge step toward Japan’s drinks taking their place in the world alcohol community.

(Originally published in Japanese on December 12, 2024. Banner photo: A brewer stirs steamed rice to create the seed mash for brewing nihonshu. Taken on November 25, 2024 at Ishikawa Sake Brewery in Fussa, Tokyo. © Reuters.)