Takara Distillery is commonly credited with starting the canned chuhai craze back in 1984. The shochu and citrus juice cocktails were an instant hit, and that segment of the market has seen year-on-year growth almost every year since. 2015 was no exception. After barely breaching the 100 million case threshold for the first time in 2014, the "Ready To Drink" (RTD) industry … [Read more...]
2015 Japanese Household Shochu Consumption
It was announced last month that Yamagata City led all Japanese municipalities in household alcohol consumption in 2015. While not topping any of the seven individual alcohol categories measured, Yamagata City did finish in the top five on three of those lists. By comparison, Tokyo's downtown 23 wards only appeared on two lists, finishing third in household wine consumption … [Read more...]
Yamagata City Tops 2015 Household Alcohol Consumption
As happens every year, the numbers on annual household consumption were released for public perusal. As is so often the case, the municipalities that led the nation in terms of total alcohol consumption were mostly located in northern prefectures. The winner in 2015, with an average household expenditure of ￥51,640 for the year, was Yamagata City. Yamagata City wasn't … [Read more...]
2015 Otsurui Shochu Shipment Numbers
The Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association (JSS) released shipment tallies for December 2015 which means that we can relay the total for the entire year. Pot still-produced shochu makers sold 460,172 kiloliters in 2015. The most popular type of otsurui shochu was potato (芋) with 206,901 kl in sales. Barley (麦) was second at 188,895 kl, and rice (米) third at 41,804 kl. … [Read more...]
October 2014 Shochu Stats
The Japan Saké and Shochu Makers Association (JSS) has released the September numbers for shochu shipments. Honkaku potato shochu shipments retook the lead in October after falling behind barley shochu shipments in September. The 19,696 kl of potato shochu shipped represented a 8.3% jump year over year (YoY) when compared to October 2013. Barley shochu was second with 17,236 … [Read more...]