Japan Tourism Agency of the Japanese Government plans to promote “sake brewery tourism” for international tourists visiting Japan.
In fiscal 2017, the Japan Tourism Agency will select model districts in various parts of the country, where planning of a tour around sake breweries is respectively to be undertaken.
The Agency’s project aims at finding out problems to be faced in receiving overseas tourists at the model districts as well as training interpreters for the sake brewery tourism.
Most of sake breweries are traditional Japanese-style buildings, where tourists can get informed about sake brewing and enjoy tasting various kinds of local sake or Japanese rice wine.
The Japanese Government hopes that these sake breweries will be effectively used as tourist resources to revitalize local areas by inviting international tourists to the breweries.
According to a survey conducted by the Japan Tourism Agency in 2015, more than 40 percent of inbound tourists drank sake during their stay in Japan.
It will be a key point to have international tourist impressed with an attractive taste of Japanese sake during their stay in Japan for boosting sake exports to foreign countries as well.
A number of the inbound tourists hit the record of 24 million persons in 2016. It has almost doubled in past three years, and has been still continuing to increase during the first quarter of this year.