Sake Lovers: Yuki Imanishi and Kyoko Nagano Build Bridges Between Japanese Sake and Foreign Buyers

So far in this blog, I’ve written about Japanese sake brewing and brewing-related topics as well as international sake making. This post, though, brings together domestic and international in a different way. It’s about two intrepid Japanese women who are working hard to bridge the gap between the sometimes opaque Japanese sake world and ex-pats living in Japan who want to learn more about sake. They’re also creating some great content that anyone around the world can access.

Sake sommelier Yuki Imanishi and serial cultural entrepreneur Kyoko Nagano and are the founders of Sake Lovers, Inc., a multi-platform company that arranges brewery tours for English-speaking guests, runs a sake retail and event site where they hold group events and private tastings, and sells sake both domestically and abroad.

The idea for Sake Lovers was born when the two women were introduced to each other by a mutual acquaintance who saw that they shared the mission of demystifying Japanese culture for foreigners living in Japan. “We have so many sake retailers here in Japan and sites that introduce sake to Japanese people, plus online retail sites like Rakuten and Amazon,” Nagano says. “But a lot of expats don’t know where to find good sake. We saw there was a demand, and no good website for them in English.” So in 2018 the two women founded Sake Lovers.

Imanishi became a sake professional after working for 25 years as a corporate accountant, heeding a call she had heard for years. “From about the age of twenty I liked all kinds of alcohol, especially sake—though not beer!” she says, “and I liked traveling all over the country to explore it. I’m interested in the history of sake, and of the breweries themselves.” In 2016 she received her sake sommelier certification from the Kyoto-based food and drink association FBO Kyokai and another from The Academy Sake Corporation (Nihonshu Dendoshi).

Raised in multiple countries around the globe and fluent in English, Nagano has worked for the past three years to expand and promote Japanese culture to foreigners living in Japan and abroad. She came to sake culture much later than Imanishi. “My first encounter during university wasn’t a happy one,” she recalls. “You go to nomikai (drinking parties) with university colleagues and drink very cheap sake and don’t know your limits. I always felt sick afterwards.” Okay, not a happy sake introduction, though this is a story I’ve heard from many a sake or beer professional. It wasn’t until after becoming a mother of two that Nagano drank a premium sake and saw the light—she was hooked.

They built upon the 1,000-members strong sake fan group Washukai (Japanese Sake Club), that Imanishi and a friend had been nurturing, continuing its brewery tours and tastings.

Although Imanishi’s training at FBO Kyokai was geared toward those in the food and beverage industry and stressed the traditional concept of omotenashi (Japanese hospitality), focusing on style of service, serving vessels and other facets of sake etiquette, she and Nagano have taken a more western tasting- and pairing-focused approach to sake. Their English-language site Sake Geek features tasting notes on individual sakes as well as a guide to close to 50 breweries written by an roster of sake professionals, experts and enthusiasts. (They are looking for more sake professional writers if any of you are interested in contributing!)

Currently Sake Lovers exports to Singapore and Hong Kong, and plans to add Germany to their list later this year. The good news for Canada is that Imanishi and Nagano are preparing to begin an export relationship with the Ontario provincial liquor control board LCBO, one of the world’s largest buyers and retailers of alcoholic beverages. They hope to enter the U.S. market soon.

Sake Lovers represents about 100 small breweries across the country, offering gratis the administrative services of preparing export documents and taking a slim percentage of the very small profit on each bottle sold, only about $3 to $5 USD per bottle. “There’s a fine line between making money and not making money,” says Nagano.

I asked each owner to share some of their favorite sakes. “I really like Nagano Prefecture breweries,” says Imanishi. There are a lot of small kura (breweries) there, and the style tends to be rich in flavor and tasty.” She is partial, you might have guessed, to kimoto and yamahai styles. Nagano is a champion of female master brewer-made products. Sake Lovers features Asako Watanabe of Watanabe Brewery in Gifu Prefecture, Hanako Kudo from Maizuru Brewery in Akita Prefecture and Nobuko Inaba of Ibaraki Prefecture’s Inaba Brewery. Nagano singles out Inaba’s small-batch junmai daiginjo Stella for praise.

Tip for Canadian buyers: look for Sake Lovers bottle from Yonezawa Brewery in Nagano Prefecture, which will make its foreign debut with the LCBO. It’s one of Imanishi’s and Nagano’s favorites, and is a brewery that’s taken home several International Wine Challenge (IWC) awards in recent years.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected Imanishi and Nagano’s business as well as the entire sake brewery world, hitting the company’s sales to izakayas and restaurants and putting a temporary stop to their export efforts. But they’ve redoubled their online educational activities, including brewery tours for the various Tokyo-based foreign embassies and communities.

Imanishi and Nagano’s next event will be on May 22, a virtual sightseeing tour of Asahikawa, Hokkaido featuring Otokoyama and Takasago Breweries. My co-writer Michael and I will be featuring the story of Otokoyama and another Hokkaido brewery, Kamikawa Taisetsu, in our book.

Imanishi and Nagano’s Tsukiji sake salon, a membership club and sake retail store, is located a short walk from Tsukiji station or Shintomicho station, as well as from the Tsukiji outer market. Although the central fish market has relocated to Toyosu, Nagano says, “The outer market is still open, and you will be surprised to see how crowded it is…our friends say Tsukiji is still the best place to get great- quality food ingredients such as seafood, premium fruits and vegetables.”

It’s fantastic to see the world of sake education and sake culture continue to expand, and I look forward to seeing how these two entrepreneurs continue to grow their business.

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