Yo-Ho Brewing opens its first Kansai brewery across the bay from Kansai Airport

Yo-Ho Brewing (headquartered in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture), one of Japan’s leading craft beer makers, has opened Yonayona Beer Rise, its first base in the Kansai region, in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. The brewery stands in a seaside area across the bay from Kansai International Airport. The Nikkei reported that its tours are fully booked. That a brewery that grew up in a highland town in Nagano has moved into the gateway of a major metropolitan area suggests that Japan’s craft beer market is entering a new phase.

A design that shows the brewing

The brewery puts the production process itself at the heart of the visitor experience. The wall of the main hall, where visitors relax, is glazed from floor to ceiling, measuring 7 metres high and 17 metres wide. Guests can eat and drink freely while looking out over the brewing tanks. Until now, brewery and sake factory visits in Japan have generally meant being guided along a set route. Here, the main attraction is enjoying food and drink with the brewing floor as the backdrop. It could be said that Yo-Ho built this facility not simply as a production site but as a place for people to experience the brand.

Bringing people back to a stagnant bayside area

The area across the bay from Kansai Airport, where the brewery stands, has seen urban development stall for a long time since the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. Prompted by Yo-Ho’s arrival, nearby businesses have begun to work together to create liveliness. The idea of a craft brewery becoming a hub that draws people to a locality is a familiar one in urban regeneration across Europe. That breweries in Japan are starting to play a similar role is a change in the industry worth noting.

How to enjoy it in Europe

Even if you never visit the Osaka brewery, this story shows where Japanese craft beer stands today. Japanese craft beer has grown with a style that prizes aroma and character, quite unlike the uniform lagers of the big brewers. If you come across Japanese craft beer in a specialist bottle shop or an Asian grocery in Europe, check the label for where the brewery is based. Knowing where a brewery that spread from a small regional town to the whole country is located brings out the story behind the glass. You can also set it beside Belgian, German or British beers and look for differences in aroma and bitterness.