[Our thoughts] Why did you start studying at a real sake brewery? Create life-changing encounters through sake

“What should we do next year?”

2020, the first year of Corona.
September is still hot. When I went to a certain sake brewery in Saga.

The number of inventories I saw at that time, the decrease in sales due to Corona, and the feelings of Mr. Kuramoto I heard at that time.

Everything is shocking and you have to do something from the bottom of your heart.

I felt that intuitively.

table of contents

1. [Nice to meet you] Hands-on local sake masssu.
2. Why did you decide to start a business in the first place?
1. Studying in Australia changed my life | "Just be yourself."
2. Launch an inbound promotion business company
3. All business suspended due to the new coronavirus
1. Saga brewery that I met at such time
4. The current situation of the sake industry where three companies go out of business in a month
5. Directly connect the "creator" and the "drinker" and connect their thoughts
6. “Online Sake Brewery Study Abroad®︎” started in December 2020
7. Renewing the image of sake with [Real Sake Brewery Study Abroad®︎]
1. Difficult negotiations. An unprecedented battle.
2. Finally realized in January 2022! Great response!
8. “Democratization of sake brewing” Experience all aspects of sake brewing
9. Create life-changing encounters through sake

[Nice to meet you] Hands-on local sake masssu.

Nice to meet you, everyone.
My name is Massu, the representative of Hands-on Local SAKE.

In this article, I am writing in a blog format to reflect on my own thoughts, focusing on why we decided to do [Study Abroad in Real Sake Brewery] and what we think about our vision for the future.

Please stay with me until the end if you don't mind.

Why did you decide to start a business in the first place?

Studying in Australia changed my life | "Just be yourself."

Originally, I dropped out of regular high school and made up my mind to pass through a correspondence high school. He was a so-called inferior student who was said to be definite about his age.

When I turned 19, I felt the fear of becoming an adult, so after finishing my second year at university, I went to study abroad in Australia .

And at that time, an Australian woman said, "Just be yourself."

After that, when I returned to Fukuoka, I was a fourth-year university student with a mission to "connect people with completely different values ​​and create encounters that change their lives," based on my experience studying abroad in Australia. It opened in October 2015.

Launch an inbound promotion business company

In order to accomplish that mission, we chose the so-called inbound promotion business , which aims to convey the appeal of “Food Fukuoka” to inbound people and connect foreigners and locals .

In addition, we focused on repeat tourists among foreign tourists, and developed our business by creating free papers for foreign repeaters and collaborating with bloggers and YouTubers .

All business suspended due to the new coronavirus

However, in 2020, due to the influence of the new coronavirus, the number of inbound tourists is overwhelming.

Our business has virtually come to a standstill .

It took me five years to finally build a business, and while I managed to repay the debt, I was making new friends.

Saga brewery that I met at such time

It was during this time that I met Mr. Saga Sakagura, whom I talked about at the beginning.

At that time, I was shocked to see the amount of sales decrease due to Corona and the large amount of inventory left in the warehouse.

“What should we do next year?”

I didn't have the words to answer the sake brewery who leaked such a voice.

Also, I was in a similar situation, so I felt like my thoughts were in sync,

"There must be something we can do. The way we live is here."

I was convinced.

The current situation of the sake industry where three companies go out of business in a month

Since then, I have been researching sake, and I have come to realize that there were over 4,000 sake breweries at its peak. is.

Converting this into a month, it means that as many as three sake breweries are being forced out of business every month . .

If you hear 3 companies in a month, you can understand the seriousness of the matter.

Directly connect the "creator" and the "drinker" and connect their thoughts

I kept thinking about what to do to change the current situation of the sake industry, and one answer I found was,

The idea was to directly connect the maker and the drinker .

After talking with the sake breweries I met, I noticed that despite the fact that they put so much passion into making sake, and that they are truly devoting their lives to making sake, their thoughts have not reached them at all .

That's why we thought that the first thing we should do is convey the thoughts and anguish behind sake brewing to the consumers, who are the drinkers, as purely as possible .

[Online Sake Brewery Study Abroad®︎] Starts in December 2020

The first thing I came up with was the “Online Sake Brewery Study Abroad”.

This service, which started in December 2020, debuted as "a service that allows you to toast directly with the presidents and chief brewers of local sake breweries while staying at home."

■ Online Sake Brewery Study Abroad Official Site

Renewing the image of sake with [Real Sake Brewery Study Abroad®︎]

And this real sake brewery study abroad started next to online.

Real Sake Brewery Study Abroad is a “super-short-term brewery experience” where you can actually experience sake brewing at a sake brewery and receive “freshly squeezed sake” that you have been involved in making .

In order to change the current state of the sake industry, I believe that the first step is to revamp the image of sake and increase the number of people who can "own" the current state of the sake industry .

For that reason, it is necessary for the brewers to experience the earnest brewing of sake.

With that in mind, I negotiated with each company.

Difficult negotiations. An unprecedented battle.

However, the road to realization was quite difficult.

There is no precedent.

From the sake brewery's point of view, we have never had an outsider come in during the sake brewing period.

This is because we have to pay close attention during the sake brewing process, which is the nature of the sake-specific job of dealing with microorganisms.

However, I didn't want to give up, so I continued negotiations one by one.

Finally realized in January 2022! Great response!

After continuing negotiations, we were finally able to make it happen in January 2022!

Thanks to TV and magazines such as Jalan Sake Travel BOOK, we were able to have a total of 35 participants experience real sake brewery study abroad 9 times from January to April. I was.

As a result, more than 50% of the participants were women, and it was a very pleasant and unexpected result that a considerable percentage of people who did not drink sake participated .

Comments from participants

“The image of sake and brewers has changed a lot in a good way.”

"From now on, I would like you to drink carefully drop by drop."

And so on, we received very happy impressions one after another, and this is definitely a move to change the sake industry! I felt so.

“Democratization of sake brewing” Experience all aspects of sake brewing

The vision we are aiming for is "democratization of sake brewing" .

In other words, we want as many people as possible to participate in sake brewing by experiencing everything about sake brewing.

By doing so, I think that you will be able to feel more familiar with sake and be able to see it as something that belongs to you.

We would like to play a role as the third "linker" that sincerely connects the "creator" and the "drinker" .

Create life-changing encounters through sake

At the end··

I believe that sake is the world's best tool for connecting people .

“Wajo Ryoshu”: A good sake that brings out Japanese harmony.
As the saying goes, I would like to create a service that connects all people from the heart through sake and changes the lives of those who drink today's sake .

Since I actually started this service, the number and quality of encounters have changed overwhelmingly!

"I like Japanese sake!"
I believe that this is the unmistakable value of sake.

It's been a long time, but if you've read this article, please come and visit a real sake brewery! I don't think it will hurt!

I can only say that it was fate that I started to be involved in this sake industry, as I am not good at drinking alcohol.

However, I would like to make some kind of change in this industry because I was involved.

I'm still inexperienced with the service that I just started, but thank you for your support!