| TOKYO, Mar. 10 – In the Showa era, one-up sake was just for older men, but today, it’s also for young people and foreign nationals. Naito Shoten is a local liquor shop in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, that sells more than 100 types of single-serve cup sake from all over Japan. The shop displays the sake like books on the shelves. The cups were originally designed to be sold locally, so they have distinctive designs unique to regions and breweries. As they come in small portions, people can enjoy comparing different flavors of sake from different breweries.
About 15 years ago, an 84-year-old liquor shop representative, Tatsuo Tojo, came up with the idea of selling a wide variety of one-cup sake and encouraging people to buy them by their cover, after seeing that canned beers had become a staple product for people enjoying alcohol at home. It went well, and the shop now has a solid new customer base: young people and inbound tourists. Its hit items include retro-looking ones, like a cup with cherry blossom patterns and an early Imari ware, or a cup with cute local characters. “Sake is becoming an increasingly more sophisticated product, but we also have new customers who prefer local products. I hope to see more new products with unique designs come into the market,” Tojo said. |