Craft Sake Week 2025: Japan's ultimate sake celebration returns

1 week ago 12

Mark your calendars from April 18 to April 29 to celebrate sake, one of the most in-demand Japanese cultural heritages. Craft Sake Week 2025, a 12-day festival, will showcase the best of sake artistry.

Japan Craft Sake Company, led by a former soccer legend Hidetoshi Nakata, is gearing up to bring the event back to Roppongi Hills Arena for its seventh year.

Exquisite sake selections of breweries from all over Japan at Craft Sake Week 2024 Image: Mai Shoji

After an intense pre-sake selection process over two days, handpicked from over 400 tastings by top sake experts, sommeliers and restaurant owners, the lineup of over 120 sake breweries for this round has been confirmed. I participated in one of the selection sessions to honestly rate 40 sake brands. With a water bottle in our hands, we carefully marked only the ones that went well on our palettes, some of which I am looking forward to having at the event again.

At the selection session also was the tasting of Japan Craft Sake Company’s original sake, “éks”, exclusively brewed for specific cuisine, such as yakiniku (barbecue), kaiseki, or tempura, and all of which are dedicated to each cuisine in collaboration with reputable chefs.

Along with the sake displays were four kinds of their original tea blend, "Hanaahu Tea”, in line with the concept of four seasons. Green tea has garnered increasing international attention, ideal for food pairing and not only for a non-alcoholic beverage choice.

“Tea pairing is highly recognized recently and great for palate cleansing in between courses, too,” Nakata said at the tasting session. The rising influence of Japanese tea, such as "Hanaahu Tea” and “éks,” will also be in the spotlight at this year’s event.

Four kinds of Hananahu Tea: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter Image: Mai Shoji

One of the highlights of Craft Sake Week is the lineup of Michelin starred restaurants that create an exclusive menu for the festival. For some of them, reservations are pretty much unattainable, and, pricey. For example, last year, “Narazuke Cream Cheese with Sea Bream Shuto” from Haku, owned by a Michelin 2-star chef, was less than ¥1,000, which was splendid. I also like to talk to the chefs in the food truck to have a feel for what their restaurant experience may be when I visit. I spoke with Haku’s chef himself who traveled across the nation to discover the ultimate rice, “Ryu no Hitomi”. Since then, I have visited their restaurant three times. The food pairing experience at Craft Sake Week is exclusive and may even add a new repertoire to your dining life.

Haku is owned by a Michelin 2-star chef. Image: Mai Shoji

The lineup of 15 restaurants this year is also irresistible: from a Chinese cuisine that started in Shimane Prefecture, Tousenkaku Tokyo; fresh cheese from Kurkku Fields in Chiba; and one of my personal favorite yakiniku restaurants, Yoroniku disclosing their glorious "Truffle Sukiyaki", staging a perfect curtain call for the event's grand finale.

Craft Sake Week is also a chance to talk to the artisans as well as licensed sake sommeliers who volunteer at the event each year, walking around with sake bottles. They are remarkably friendly, so you will never feel alone even if you go by yourself. The volunteers are there purely for their love of sake. You can be sure to make new discoveries no matter how many times you visit.

This year’s event kicks off with the theme, "The Rise of Bubbles”. Sparkling sake is not the most traditional style, though very popular for its elegant light bubbles. The following Sunday is "Juicy Fresh Sake” to introduce the charm of new frontiers. The legendary "Team Jyu-yondai” will cap off the festivities led by master brewers with an exclusive lineup.

Each year, Craft Sake Week invites a highly regarded young architect to design the venue to create an immersive experience. Past themes have included, masu (wooden sake cups), take (bamboo), or sakura (cherry blossoms), providing a space to indulge in the allure of Japanese culture. The venue design for this year will be led by Mount Fuji Architects Studio, an architecture firm headed by renowned architects Masahiro Harada and Mayo Harada. They have been awarded numerous prestigious accolades, including Japan’s top Architectural Grand Prize.

The main symbol for 2025 is mune-age (completion of framework) which refers to the final stage of building when the ridge pole is raised at the peak of a structure. A traditional Japanese construction ceremony marks the completion of a building, involving prayers for the building's stability and success. On this festive day, people give thanks for the successful raising of the building's framework. To reimagine the spatial concept of mune-age, Craft Sake Week will bring it to life through the use of cutting-edge simulation technology and a tensegrity structure.

Over one million visitors have attended the festival in the past, including ones held in such regional cities as Fukuoka and Sendai. This year promises even more, with 16 new breweries making their debut and 15 top restaurants serving exclusive menus, alongside a dream team of sake pioneers, from rising stars to industry legends. It's the perfect opportunity to dive deep into the world of sake and experience its evolution first-hand.

For those of you new to the beverage, unsure how to explore new sake, or can’t read the unique characteristics of sake brands, Sakemony, a bilingual app, is a foreigner friendly tool to simply scan the label or use text search to easily find the info, the passion of the brewers, and even food pairing recommendations from the brewers themselves.