Masumi president Miyasaka explains why exports mean 'learning from the world'

Miyasaka Brewing in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, is a long-established brewery founded in 1662. It is known as the brewery where the “No. 7 yeast” was born, a yeast now used by sake breweries across Japan, and today it makes all of its sake at its brewery in Fujimi, in the same prefecture. Annual production is 600,000 bottles, counted as 1.8-litre isshobin bottles. In an interview published in the Yomiuri Shimbun on 20 October 2026, president Naotaka Miyasaka (70), who also chairs the Nagano Prefecture Sake Brewers Association, spoke about exports, which account for around 15% of annual sales. He says exports matter not only for revenue: the information gained overseas is just as important. Wine and spirits makers in Europe and the United States have competed internationally for a long time, so their thinking on quality and product development is more advanced. Japanese sake needs to take this on board, he says.

Harsh judgement in Bordeaux

In the 1990s the domestic jizake (local sake) boom had peaked. At that time, on the introduction of a fellow brewer who knew wine well, he visited a winery in France. The French wine industry was also facing sluggish demand, but it had re-examined quality from the ground up and put effort into tourism and exports. He says he learned a great deal from seeing this. In 1999 he exhibited for the first time at Vinexpo, the international wine fair in Bordeaux. Overseas buyers criticised not only the taste but also the labels and bottles. Even so, he took the criticism on board, rethought and exhibited again, repeating this cycle. Through it, the concept and character of each product took shape. The president looks back on this accumulation as the company’s history.

A “shared destiny” with rice farmers

Exports are also tied to the issue of rice, the raw material. Japanese rice prices soared last year and then fell sharply this year. Nagano-grown sake rice (rice varieties suited to sake brewing) Miyama Nishiki has also become 4,000 yen cheaper per bale (60 kg) than a year earlier. Even so, the president takes the position that brewers should not press farmers to cut prices now. More than half of rice farmers are already aged 70 or over. No one knows whether rice will still be grown in Japan ten years from now, and he even says the day may come when sake is made with Californian rice. Buying expensive rice, reflecting it in prices and selling into a shrinking domestic market is a difficult path. That is exactly why he is looking overseas.

Overseas is a growth market

The president sees changes overseas as an opportunity for sake. More people are eating fish out of health consciousness, and wealthy consumers are also showing interest in Japanese food. He adds that Nagano’s name being known abroad as a Winter Olympics host is a strength too. The company exports to the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, France and elsewhere, and has sales offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China.

If you want to taste it in Europe, look for the name “Masumi” in the ranges of specialist sake shops and importers. As this is a brewery that was toughened up at trade fairs in France, the label and bottle designs, refined in Europe, are also worth a look. Following the spread of fish eating overseas that the president pointed out, pairing it with seafood dishes is a good idea. Enjoy it slowly, as the sake from the home of the yeast used by breweries around Japan.