Fukushima looks to top-tier sake to beat stigma, lift economy

IN AN AREA of Japan still decimated by a nuclear disaster, sake is giving cause for hope.

For the past five years, the sake brewers of Fukushima, on a two-decade quest to develop premium products, have captured the most gold medals in a key national competition and have won numerous international awards. Drinkers worldwide have noticed the rising quality, with the result that sake exports from Fukushima have more than doubled since 2012.

Now the prefectural government and local brewers are promoting their success. The hope is that Fukushima’s championship sake — made from local rice and water — will serve as a symbol of the safety of local agricultural and fishery products and of the prospects for the prefecture’s broader revival.

“If we can show that Fukushima makes the best sake in the world, surely we can overcome the stigma,” said Hiroyuki Karahashi, the president of Homare Sake Brewery Co., which won first place in the sake category at the 2015 London International Wine Challenge.

Fukushima’s challenge is enormous. The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that devastated the region in March 2011 killed 4,000 people in Fukushima alone. Many of the 50,000 people forced to leave their homes have no plans to return. The local economy has been largely propped up by reconstruction spending the years since, but that spending is expected to fall in the years to come.

Meanwhile, local companies still struggle with lingering public fears of radiation contamination. Only around 30% of businesses in the important fisheries and food processing sectors have seen their sales rise to pre-disaster levels, according to the nation’s reconstruction agency. —