While Japanese sake brewing evolves, consumption falls

― Today, SakeWiz Co., Ltd., who develops applications and operates restaurants for connecting the world with sake, gave us time. Thank you very much. First of all, what kind of place is the charm of sake sake moved as much as everyone carries out business?

Mori: Simply put, I think that the charm of sake made in japan is that it is made of pure Japanese, and there is no taste and delicate taste. It can also be said that it is pure and it reflects the delicacy of the Japanese people

Jayson: I came to Japan to know sake, but there are various ways to make sake, and variations of how to drink are plentiful. I felt a lot of fun in how to enjoy various things.

Mori: I heard that the quality of this sake is getting very high now.

Kumagaya: I agree. Especially the impression that reform has occurred in the sake industry for about 10 years.

As a background to this, it can be said that many sake breweries are entering generations. From the age of 70's roughly 30 generations to about 40's the president was taken over and the place to start making new sake is increasing. Recently, "Junmai rice" has begun to be accepted by consumers, making it without mainstream alcohol brewing has become mainstream. It is one of the reasons that the quality of sake is rising, that it is possible to produce highly pure sake without brewing alcohol.

― As saw changes, sake and its way of making are evolving.

Kumagaya: On the other hand, there is movement such as Kuramoto turning back to the origin.

For example, do you know that many gift brewers are committed to raw material "rice" and are doing sake brewing using rice made in their prefecture and region? There is also a movement to make rice with local people and to make sake with that rice. This is close to the idea of "Burgundy" as in wine.

― The sake that we were drinking normally was built under such efforts of Kuramoto.

How is the consumption of sake changing while Japanese commer- cial sake brews commitment?

Kumagaya: Unfortunately, consumption of sake is falling.

Depending on the liquor store, sales may be growing, but Japanese sake from major beverage makers has reduced sales volume, and overall it is depressed.

― While Japanese food attracted attention, I thought that sake also received its attention.

Kumagaya: Sake sake has very little information on the net compared to wine etc

In fact, Ms. Saito who is often run by a family other than the major. I think that there are times when it is not possible to make time to go to business or to make time to transmit information.

Mori: I agree. Sake is a product that is proud of the world, it is also a place that can further complement the "Japanese food" that became the world culture. However, reality is that the charm and history are not first understood by the Japanese people.

I had a problem consciousness in these places and started to think that there is something I can do to convey the wonderfulness of sake.

Japanese novel wine bar "Firenze SAKE" with a novel combination

― From here, I will ask about the business that SakeWiz Corporation is doing. First of all, when was Waka Baru "Firenze Sake Tokyo" opened?

Mori: It is a year after the opening on July 1, 2017.

― Why was it supposed to combine Italian with sake? At first glance it seems like an unexpected combination.

Kumagaya: In general, there seems to be few people that seems like that.

However, in fact, sake has a delicate taste, and its taste changes with temperature, so various ways of enjoying can be done. If I could make use of the charm of that sake, I thought that I could match not only Japanese food but also other dishes absolutely, and I thought of combining Italian and sake I have been involved with so far.

― Kumagai, who knows deeply about sake and Italian, is a fresh idea that can only be done!

Kumagaya: Japanese people categorize drinks in situations, are not they? Japanese food and sushi are Japanese sake, wine when celebrating, and beer for a toast for the time being.

Wine is now in sushi, chinese, french, italian, many restaurants, but there is not much that sake is in Italian or western style shops, right?

― That may be the case.

Kumagaya: In order to let me know about sake as a widely enjoyable meal, "Firenze Sake Tokyo" I would like to keep pace with "pairing".

― In fact, is there anything devised about the menu that will be served at the shop to match with sake?

Kumagaya: I am borrowing the power of our chef there. He is good at linking seasonal ingredients and Japanese unique ingredients to Italian regional cuisine, even though it is Italian, he also uses yuzu and peppers.

Also, do you know that there is a season for sake as there is a season in the ingredients? I am considering a menu that matches sake in the season such as summer sake in the summer, cold or grated in the autumn.

― What kind of customers are actually in the shop?

Kumagaya: There are men in thirties, but women's customers are overwhelmingly overwhelming. About half of men and women in their 40s. I was surprised that many young women who love Japanese sake liked visiting us. When you become a regular customer, you order almost no sake menu of sake, "Please order sake for this dish."

― It is a proof that you trust Mr. Kumagai and the chef. One year after opening, how is the atmosphere of the store?

Kumagaya: About 3 months after opening, sake was ordered from 70% to 70% of drinks. As wine was also put on, many customers asked for wine because it is Italian.

However, now the order of sake has become 90%. There are customers who like different combinations of sake and Italian, and I am really happy.

While opening an event that invited the president of sake brewery making sake, I think that if you dig down this unique route, you can still increase the number of fans.

An application "SakeWiz" that can touch sake anytime, anywhere

― I will also ask about the application "SakeWiz" which is developed simultaneously with restaurant management. First of all, how was this application made?

Mori: First of all, this application "SakeWiz" aims to make more contact points with consumers and sake.
For example, sake can not be drunk all the time, users can touch anytime with any application. In the daytime you can use the application, you can investigate sake or buy sake, and at night you will come to a shop that has your favorite sake.

― I heard that this application has popular features from users not in other applications.

Mori: Is it a "label image scanner" function?

This is a function that when AE picks up a label of a sake, AI scans the shooting data, searches the database for the same label, and tells what kind of sake that Kuramoto is making.

Currently, we provide such information in 4 languages including Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese. Foreign people seem to be useful because this kanji can not be read and therefore the label itself can not be read.

Currently, this application is pre-released in January 2018, after grand opening in May, it is being offered in six countries of Japan, Canada, USA, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. Looking to full-scale promotion in the future, we are now working to enhance the database.

― How much information about sake are currently in the database?

Mori: Currently it is about 9,000.
I think that there are about 30,000 brands in the entire sake market, but some sake is made in rural areas and consumed locally and does not circulate much. Therefore, I guess that if you cover about 13,000 different types of sake, it would cover between 80% and 90% of the Japanese sake that is distributed.

― It covers most of the sake that you circulate!
However, if you are developing such an application, is not it something you have suffered too?

Jayson: Although there was not much technical difficulty, I had a hard time collecting information on sake.

Initially, I was thinking to get information from Mr. Kuramoto, but when I actually met with lots of Kuramoto, I did not go well.

I will explain the concept and function of the application, but I could not understand easily what kind of benefits the brewer and sake industry has by registering in the application. Many people have images that are not good for IT.

Therefore, in the end, we gathered information with almost our own power, realizing a rich amount of information.

― Have this kind of information on yourself .... It took a considerable amount of time and effort.
However, when you are talking about this story, you can see the appearance that customers of Japanese sake likes visiting eating places with the application "SakeWiz" in hand.

Mori: If people who have 1 or 2 occasions to drink sake drink 2 or 3 times a month, consumption of sake will be doubled. If the amount of sake consumption is increased in this way, there will be a halt in the reduction of the brewery.

In future, I would like to enrich the shop information, event information, the function that I can search for sake with similar taste from my favorite sake. It would be nice if this application began to play a role as a missionary to spread sake.

I would like to circulate sake information and to boost the sake industry

― May we ask about future prospects as SakeWiz Co., Ltd.?

Mori: In short, we aim to recognize that it is a service / shop with sake information that is the most reliable in the world.

For that, first of all, I would like to increase the number of users of application "SakeWiz" in Japan and around the world. I believe that the recognition technology of Japanese sake's label image is the best in the world, so I think that I can refine this technology and use it in something different viewpoint.

― How about store management?

Kumagaya: In the future, I would like to develop stores as Florence Sake brands. I think that all shops do not have to be of the same format, but there may be shops in a standing style.

However, it is unchanged that surprisingly and delightingly providing surprises and pleasures that "Japanese sake goes with this dish!?"

― The pursuit to that there is not to blur at all.

Kumagaya: Yes. By doing such store development, I think that I would like more people to know the attractiveness of sake, though it will be iterative.

Although I had the opportunity to talk about comparing sake and wine from the previous time, there is a big difference between sake and wine. That means that sake is a popular and familiar sake, and the wine has a sense of status.

For example, wine drinks at some celebration or at a weekend's home party, but sake is not the same position, do you? I'd like to raise the presence of sake to the same status as wine.

I hope you will know how to enjoy Italian and sake together at our shop.

Mori: I agree. And the biggest goal is to make the sake industry exciting by distributing information on sake. Furthermore, we aim to spread that trend not only in Japan but globally.
That is what we should do.