By Aya Ota“Blue Ribbon Restaurant Group” has developed 20 restaurants nationwide so far, mainly in New York, plus LA, Las Vegas, Miami, etc. Since the...

By Keiko FukudaThe city of Irvine, a suburban residential, and also a student campus town is located about a 40-minute drive south of downtown Los Angeles. There, there is a shopping mall, where as many Asian restaurants gather as they do in the Sawtelle District of West Los Angeles. It is the Diamo...

By Kosuke KujiThis February, sake from ten member breweries of the Japanese Sake Export Association arrived in containers at a port in Myanmar to be sold in restaurants. To commemorate this event, a Japanese Sake Sampling Event was held with JETRO’s cooperation at a hotel in Yangon. Eight breweries ...

By Elli SekineIn the Mission District of San Francisco, which is known as the base of cutting-edge food and beverages, start-up entrepreneurs and inve...

By Yuji MatsumotoI often see breweries and wholesale dealers recommending their sake to local American diners at sampling events, saying, “This sake goes with any food,” “We use 100% Yamadanishiki rice,” “This is Junmai Daiginjo,” and “This is a traditional kimoto sake,” etc. However, most people (i...

By Aya OtaThey say that the number of Japanese restaurants developing overseas has tripled in the past 10 years, and is reaching near 90,000 (*1). The...

By Keiko FukudaRed Rock opened in August of 2017 in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles, with the Slice Beef Don from Kobe as their signature dish. A rumor which said that you could taste a very unfamiliar sounding dish called the Slice Beef Don, spread instantly in the neighborhood. One time when I a...

By Kosuke KujiJapanese sake was officially imported into Myanmar for the first time in February 2018. Official export of Japanese sake to Myanmar that the Sake Export Association (of which I’m also a member) had long worked towards finally became a reality. There was no law up to this point to allow...

By Elli SekineThe SOMA District, located in the south of San Francisco’s financial district, has been having a construction rush in the past 10 years, and high-rise buildings are being built one after another. Most of the new tenants of those new buildings are IT or finance-related business people. ...

By Yuji MatsumotoThis is a trend I’ve recently noticed in the last two to three years, but I’ve noticed a widening division between the winning vs. losing brands of sake and shochu. The reason is as follows:- While the economy is slowly recovering, customers are still reluctant to loosen their purse...