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TOKYO - Sipping sake is part of many wedding ceremonies and an act of male bonding.
It has a history of more than 2000 years and is as much a part of Japan as sumo wrestling and sushi.
But sake, traditional rice wine, is losing popularity at home as more and more people opt for wine, beer and cocktails.
"Sake is the national alcohol of Japan, but Japanese people won't drink it," said Yuzo Kuji, whose family brewery is deep in the heart of a prime sake-brewing region around Morioka, 462km northeast of Tokyo.
Sake's share of Japan's alcohol market is dropping by nearly 10 per cent a year as drinks such as cocktails gain popularity.
Now a new generation of sake brewers and sellers is pushing premium brews and innovative campaigns that include marketing to young people and shipping more of the beverage overseas, where consumption is rising.
Ironically, the main thrust of the campaigns to reinvigorate sake in its homeland is to show Japanese consumers the popularity of their national drink in places like the United States, whose trends young Japanese often seek to emulate.
Sake, around as long as wet rice agriculture in Japan - or since BC300 - was once so enmeshed in the culture that it became a part of rites in Japan's Shinto religion.
Even now, sips of sake are part of many wedding ceremonies, while pulling out bottles of the drink and knocking back glasses together, often in silence, was long an act of male bonding.
As Western food made inroads, however, people began to search for alcohol that better suited this new cuisine.
They turned to chardonnays, cocktails and low-malt "happoshu" brews, which were cheap and popular with young women, who drive many trends.
Sake also took a hit from a growing health consciousness that had more people drinking wine, promoted as good for the health, or a distilled domestic beverage like shochu, made from grain, which is often drunk diluted with water.
"As far as Japanese young people are concerned, sake is what grandma and grandpa drink. It's what your boss forces you to drink in a smoky pub in a sticky glass," said John Gauntner, a consultant and author of books on sake.
Sale of sake in Japan almost halved between 1996 and 2004, according to Japan's National Taxation Bureau. By contrast, sales of other alcoholic beverages have soared.
But now, sake-makers are fighting back, touting sake as hip and good for the health.
A recent TV advertisement for one major brewery featured a slender young woman sipping sake in a miniature wineglass. Previous ads tended to show men drinking in raucous groups.
"Sake helps with blood pressure, makes the body flexible and doesn't have many calories," said Matsutaro Fukumitsu, a brewery head and director of the Japan Sake Brewers Association. "It also relieves stress."
His group sponsors events aimed at changing sake's image, including an annual "Sake Sommelier" contest in Tokyo.
Brewers have rolled out new varieties of sake. Yuzo Kuji's family brewery makes one sake he says suits French cuisine, while an unusual aged sake goes well with Chinese food.
Many brewers also emphasise premier sakes, which are made with traditional labour-intensive methods and only from rice, as opposed to adding alcohol to increase volume. Sake generally has an alcohol content of about 15 per cent.
But 80 per cent of all sake produced is still classified as "futsuushu", or "normal sake", the equivalent of "table wine."
It is this sake that is suffering most, brewers say, while top-quality varieties are selling comparatively well.
"Sake should be made with only rice," said Haruo Mizoguchi, from a Kyushu brewery.
"We don't want to make the old-fashioned kind of sake that was just something people got drunk on."
One of their most important efforts, though, is selling overseas, where a Japanese food boom has made sake sought after.
Many of the Morioka brewers say they are shipping overseas, mainly to the United States.
According to the Osaka Customs Bureau, US sake imports totalled $22 million last year - almost 24 per cent higher than in 2004. It is sold at liquor shops as well as consumed in restaurants.
"They don't have a long history of sake or the poor quality stuff," said Fukumitsu. "They're drinking only the really good sake and that's why it's getting popular."
Back at home, brewers are fanning out around the nation for sake parties, taking their product directly to consumers to win new converts like Tomoe Ueda.
"I didn't used to like sake. I'd only had really bad stuff in cheap restaurants," the 34-year-old securities worker said.
"But my husband brought me to a sake party and now I think sake is really good."
- REUTERS
