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| February 8th 2007 |
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| Japan: Land of the Rising Sun |
by Ned Goodwin
The world’s third strongest economy is the fourth largest importer of wine in the world. With consumption stagnant and prices falling, the market is mired in a polarized state.
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Although an Asian nation with few historical links to wine, Japan is an important player in the wine world. However, it is a highly complex market, boasting a huge number of importers relative to stagnant consumption hovering at two litres per capita. Yet two categories stand out as especially pertinent to the market at large: the penchant for luxury brands; and, at other extreme, the abundance of wines at the lower end of the quality scale, most retailing below the Japanese average price of ¥800 (€5.13, $6.65). In Japan there is little middle ground.
Japan is the world’s fourth largest importer of wine. While France still dominates the Japanese market, clinging to a 45% share, it has lost 15% in volume – but gained 10% in value - over the past five years as prices have risen. Italy, with its predominance in the on-trade, has declined 13% due to strict drink-driving laws that have affected sales. Australia, which had shown strong growth for a number of years, especially in 2005 with a 23% increase in volume, sagged in 2006 by almost 30%. This indicates that growth was superficially inflated due to the Yellow Tail phenomenon. After saturation of the market by importer, Suntory, residual stock is sufficient to soak up demand – and imports have declined. Although still a small player, New Zealand shows particularly strong numbers. Argentina also shows positive growth. Spain is the only bright note among Old World producing countries.
Though these are not promising figures for an economy supposedly in the midst of a revival, they indicate that the market is becoming more open to wine from the New World, with growth from New Zealand, the US, particularly in the off-trade discounters, and Argentina being strong. Overall, however, the market is stagnant. There are numerous reasons for stagnation, including zero tolerance drink and drive laws, a sporadic and slow economic recovery, alternate choices in an affluent society and the need for the players involved to embrace education while comprehending fickle consumers’ needs. The reality is that the Japanese market is mired in a polarized state, and nobody seems to be able to liven it up.
In 2006 there was a slight increase in consumption, but the share of imports has in fact fallen to 62% - the lowest for three years. This is due to growth in Japan’s domestic market. There is growing pride in what is seen as an indigenous Vinifera variety, Koshu, and there are some well-regarded Bordeaux-style blends like Grace. President Abe’s patriotic push in schools is arguably reflected in the newly created sections for Japanese wines in stores. This being said, most domestic wines are relatively expensive, and not competitive with foreign examples in terms of value for money. By law, only 5% of a wine has to be from domestic grapes for it to be Japanese, and most “local” offerings are litlle more than cocktails of imported bulk wine. There are, how-ever, ever more Japanese wineries such as Coco |
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Farms endeavouring to come across as artisan with only 100% domestically sourced grapes in their wines – the government’s patriotic policies, a legal denominative designation for such wines may come into play.
Price Segmentation
Japan remains smitten with icon brands and consumes the highest percentage of Champagne’s luxury cuvees in the world, including Dom Perignon, for which it is the largest export market. The average price point for Champagne is a staggering ¥5,300 (€32,90, $42,65). Luxury sells! However, the average bottle price of non-sparkling wines remains at ¥800 and many are sold on promotion for ¥500 (€3.20, $4.15) or less. In fact, at 24% the under ¥500 category was the fastest growing in 2005. While the ¥500-1,000 bracket also gained 5.8%, every price range beyond that fell.
While specialist importers note that wines retailing for under ¥2,000 (€12,80, $16,65) move, items between ¥1,800 and ¥3,000 - often championed as by-the-glass pours – are considerably more difficult to sell in volume. Anything over ¥4,000 becomes a niche wine that succeeds either because it is famous or highly rated by Robert Parker, whose influence is widely felt at this level. The internet is growing rapidly, yet relies on ratings rather than creative sale’s policies. James Dunstan of the Rhone specialist, The Vine, notes that many internet retailers refuse to touch a wine unless it has been rated by Parker.
With luxury Champagne at one end of the scale and lowly undrinkables at the other, this is a highly polarized market - and one that is unlike any elsewhere. France is, for example, responsible for half of the top ten brands, a figure that is out of sync with the rest of the world. This state of affairs is due to the legacy of Japan Inc. and an obsession with market share. The market is dominated by Kokubu, Suntory, Mercian and the brewers, Sapporo and Asahi. These firms have traditionally flooded the market with such low prices that profitability is barely possible. Little is done to expand the market through education and the status-quo remains dull. The recent sale of Mercian to Kirin by their parent, Ajinomoto, was indicative of the surmounting losses involved. Ajinomoto had had enough. Such consolidation is a current trend, with Maxxium’s sale to Asahi also on the horizon. Yet little is done in the name of profit, but rather a sort of peripatetic jockeying for market position among the large firms. “Japan is the only major wine market in the world where all the major players sell at a loss,” relates Ron Brown, head of the niche importer la Languedocienne.
The battle for market share among the big firms has created a dumping ground of cheap wine. Most brand-owners in the top ten have built volume by offering huge quantities at the lowest possible prices. While Yellow Tail was revealingly promoted as the “Number One Wine in the United States” rather |
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than because of any intrinsic Australian qualities, others such as Bichot and Duboeuf are Beaujolais dominant, a category which traditionally appeals to the Japanese, but has lost favour elsewhere. Castel and Piat d’Or are based in Bordeaux and Languedoc respectively, and trade on French heritage.
While most of these brands offer average retail prices of around ¥800, Duboeuf’s Beaujolais Village is at ¥1,540 (€9,80) and Bichot’s Beaujolais Nouveau at 2,150! While it would seem that Beaujolais Nouveau is an opportunity for importers to reduce their debts, for the consumer Beaujolais is championed as a attractive seasonal novelty worth paying for. An obsession with things French is known as “akogare”, or a yearning for that which does not exist in one’s own backyard.
Wine is effectively cheaper than beer in volume terms. Thus, the average Japanese male who consumes 8.5 litres of sake, 8.5 litres of shouchu and lots of beer each year, may try wine on occasion and possibly find it so bad that it is tipped down the sink. In addition, as storage space is limited in homes, bottles are heavy and ill-suited to a culture that shops daily rather than once a week at a mall. Further, many Japanese can not finish a bottle of wine – and wine that is not consumed is, unlike spirits, imminently perishable. As a result, many Japanese consumers give up on wine, leaving fewer potential customers in the market.
Japan boasts almost 400 importers. Furthermore, in September 2003, restrictions on issuing liquor licenses were lifted, opening new avenues for supermarkets to sell wine. As of February 2005, 89.6% of all the 2,404 stores of the major 18 supermarkets are being granted liquor retail licenses, a 6.6% increase from the year before. Likewise, 28,988 outlets of the major convenience store chains, accounting for 86.5% of all their stores, are licensed as of August 2005, up 3.9% from the same month of the previous year. This has expanded the market for lower-priced wine while spreading limited wine retailing skills even thinner than before. It is also squeezing importers at the low end and cementing the stubborn status-quo that wine is either cheap, and red or white, or expensive and predominantly French.
This being said, there is a growing significance of niche specialists concentrating on predominantly one region, such as ORCA for the Pacific Northwest, The Vine for the Rhone, Village for Australia and New Zealand or Hotei for California. Will their knowledgeable approach brighten things up?
Distribution
There are many types of retail distribution channels in Japan – and many ways to make it there. Firstly, there are direct imports by Japanese domestic manufacturers such as Suntory and Mercian. Secondly, there are imports through specialist trading companies, which explains why companies who focus on industrial machinery also import wine. Thirdly, there are direct imports by department stores |
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or large discounters that sell through their own channels. This is why a one-stop shopping spree at Bic camera can deliver the latest flat-screen television with a mattress and, hey, a bottle of wine! Further, there are imports by specialist wine merchants who sell their products not only to stores and restaurants, but also directly to consumer, be it by mail order or online sales.
Calculating prices can be very complex. Container size, as well as the choice of refrigerated or dry container, obviously has an impact. A surprising number of importers of fine wine, who should know better, insist on dry containers because is saves them as much as ¥200 per bottle on the landed cost. While duty is levied at ¥125 per litre of “still wine from fresh grapes” or 15% of the total, depending on which is less expensive, sparkling wine is taxed at ¥182 per litre. In addition, a liquor tax of ¥53 per bottle is levied and a 5% value added tax charged on the total of all expenses incurred, including wine, freight, storage and insurance.
Japanese business practice dictates, for better or worse, that one discounts 40% off the retail shelf price to liquor shops and wholesalers, and 30% off to restaurants. Thus, if one’s bottom line is a gross margin of 40% before all other costs, such as warehousing and distribution, then a 40% trade discount must leave a 40% margin. Thus, a bottle of wine with a landed price of ¥1,800 sells for 5,000 at full retail. Other importers work on even larger discounts, making their calculations incomprehensible. Floor and ceiling prices vary widely, even within the same categories. As the customers’ perspectives are skewed, both exploring wine and trading up are inadvertently discouraged.
Given the meagre level of consumption, there are by western standards but few major buyers. Although declining in importance as the channel for direct importation grows following deregulation, wholesalers such as Miyako Trading, Geonos and Kakuyasu as well as specialist wine wholesalers like Liquor Shop I in Tokyo are the main buyers. There is no three tier legal jurisdiction demanding the use of wholesalers, but the Japanese attachment to personal relationships through middlemen means that they are common. Although deregulation will, over time, negate their use among small buyers, the Japanese dislike of impersonal service, reflected in their reluctant use of credit cards, continues to offer dynamic middlemen who bring both education and personal anecdotes a valuable role.
On the other hand, although the wholesalers allow for single bottle delivery to restaurants with limited storage, or for showpiece wines that are expensive and gloss a list, it also frequently means poor service, as the staff taking orders are not knowledgeable about wine. Convenience store buyers, important since the licensing deregulation in 2003, include Seven Eleven Holdings, Aeon–Kakuyasu–Yamaya and Natural Lawsons with Vinos Yamazaki. Chains include Yamaya, |
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a discounter, and Enoteca, a reputable dealer in Bordeaux. Others include chain restaurants such as Global Dining, department stores like Toukyu, who offer a wide range of fine wine, and hotels that are influential in lieu of the building boom and predicted economic recovery.
Markets
A relatively centralized market has become extremely fractious and claustrophobic. In terms of consumption, Tokyo caters for 7 litres per capita and accounts for almost 70% of total consumption. Osaka is around 3.5, Yokohama at about 3.3 and Kobe over 2 litres, which, considering its smaller size, is surprising. Osaka, on the other hand, considering it large population, drinks little, as does Nagoya. This can be due to traditionally frugal merchant mentalities in both cities, which breed a very price-sensitive approach to wine. Bearing this in mind, wine consumption is very much an urban phenomenon, but 70% of the population lives in the country.
Japanese norms include selectivity verging on the pedantic, cultural idiosyncrasies difficult for outsiders to comprehend, including producers accustomed to faster responses to world-wide trends and a level of consumption that refuses to budge.
Meagre, and often impractical levels of consumption in the on-trade are standard, according to sommelier, Yutaka Ozaki of Tokyo’s Legato restaurant. While the on-trade accounts for 23% of consumption, almost three-quarters of all wine is purchased off-trade. Of course, this depends on whose cultural measuring-stick one uses to determine what is standard. Ozaki notes that it is common to see a table of four drink a single bottle of Bordeaux, which despite reverential pours and sighs is often finished before the food arrives. A second bottle is seldom ordered, even when the wine is inexpensive, and the meal continues with water, tea or beer. Although this may defeat the traditionally western notion that wine is designed to go with food, it does little to hamper the Japanese ideal of wine as a foreign garnish implying sophistication and status.
Declining sales indicate that consumers are disappointed by the standard on offer in most stores. On-trade, notes Tsuyoshi Sugimoto, sommelier and buyer for Tokyo’s Tableaux restaurant, “sommeliers have been trained to upsell irrespective of customer needs.” He believes that this results either in expensive French or Italian wine on the table or, worse, “the consumer switching off altogether and choosing wine by the glass…or beer.”
Perhaps a sense of disillusionment is the reason for many consumers seeking out extreme segments such as “vin naturel”. Importer Francois Dumas of Vinbio hints that the Japanese seek respite in wines that are inherently free of pretence and “of the earth.” Whatever the reason, wines without additional S02 have their own category in Tokyu department store, which has the highest per capita expenditure in all of Japan. In addition, restaurants such as |
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Marie Jeanne in Ginza offer little other than “vins sans souffre” on their list. Whether this is reflective of Japanese taste or rather another fad remains to be seen. Interestingly, Tokyu has also created a small format section with halves, splits and cans on offer. Although tetra packs are not seen, according to Sandra Shoji of the Yomiuri Shinbun, “the Japanese would drink more if there were greater variety available in smaller formats.”
Idiosyncratic ideas about what constitutes quality abound. Ozaki notes that wines from wholesalers arrive at his cellar wrapped in plastic. Damaged labels, no matter the wine’s true provenance, are no go in both the on- and off-trade in Japan. This reflects the Japanese culture of elevating packaging to an art form. At what is arguably Tokyo’s finest wine-store, Tokyu, all labels are wrapped in plastic and displayed on shelves to prevent nicks and spoils. At the same time, many importers of fine wine do not use reefer containers. It would seem that appearances are more important than intrinsic quality, even if the labour involved in the distribution raises the price.
Sommelier, Ozaki, also notes the Japanese failure to embrace certain worldwide trends, which include rosé, despite the fact that it goes well with local cuisine. The pink trend is not even on the Japanese radar. Perhaps it is seen to be plonk, yet Ozaki looks more deeply at a culture not known for its irreverence. He believes that rose implies a fun approach to wine, which is simply not appealing to the Japanese sensibility. Although no statistics are available on exact segmentation, red wine implies status and dominates consumption habits, whether it works with the food at hand or not. It is said to have 60% of the market.
Indeed, rarely does wine transcend its role as something to drink with western food. Iwasa Atushi, manager of Tokyo’s largest Japanese restaurant Gonpachi, says that despite offering a relatively extensive wine list, sake and shochu outsell wine by approximately five to one. The status-quo is hard to crack. It would seem norms are drawn on ethnocentric divides. Clearly, in order for change to occur, education is imperative.
Education
For education to work, it is important to understand the way arbiters of taste who create or more often fail to create trends, interact within these parameters. Toshihiko Agake of the Italian importer, AVICO, notes that there are few good wine journalists in Japan. Their integrity, in a western sense, is compromised by cultural nuances that dictate that winemakers and the wine at hand maintain face. According to Agake, critics rarely taste blind and almost never criticize wines constructively. Rather than an inspiration for betterment and change, the status-quo remains the dictum within which to operate.
Yet what may be viewed as compromises of integrity elsewhere are commonplace in Japan, according to Aarin Teich, manager of the American Room in the American |
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Club. He notes that blatant commercial interests are often vetted without any consequences and numerous wine lists through-out Japan smack of nepotism. Often entire countries are represented by wines from a single importer, limiting variety and quality while lining pockets. Teich notes that his club, a bastion of wealthy ex-patriot diners, boasts the highest wine per capita consumption in Japan. He is able to demonstrate wine’s diversity on his lists, and sell out large winemaker dinners for the likes of Beaucastel, Cos d’Estournel and Palmer. Yet, although Teich’s diners are able and willing to pay for the privilege to taste great wine, and while many members are Japanese, the American Club is a microcosm of the norms of the west rather than what is usual in Japan.
Sommeliers
Due to the void of influential writers and critics, the public reveres sommeliers. The obsession began when Shinya Tasaki won the title of the world’s best sommelier in 1995. There followed a wine boom in Japan, which lasted until 1998. This coincided not only with Tasaki’s victory, but perhaps most importantly, with the famous 60 Minutes edition on red wine consumption - and more pertinent to Asian thinking, news that the king of Thailand had been prescribed red wine by his doctor for ailing health. Consumption leapt to 2.8 litres per capita. Wine became cool. There was even the first sommelier manga – or cartoon – hero!
Japan was predicted by many commentators to become the next big thing in the wine world. At its preliminary exhibition conference in 2003, Vinexpo, for example, predicted a 44% increase in wine imports to Japan by 2008. In 2005 it revised this down to 23.5% due to stagnation. The problem in a land that ebbs and flows on the whims of trends was that wine became another fad, according to Taku Sugaya, principal buyer of one of Japan’s largest restaurant groups, Global Dining.
Sugaya says that not enough was done to introduce the richness of wine’s culture and its inherent variety by the rigid Japan Sommelier Association (JSA), the group that many hoped would take wine the extra mile. The JSA boasts more sommeliers than any country but Italy. Yet of 10,000 members, only 5,000 actually practise. Many are, according to Sugaya, Japan Airline stewardesses who acquire licenses for the sake of status. This does not say much for the general standard. As Steven Spurrier noted in a recent issue of Decanter, while most sommeliers “can just about manage a corkscrew, only a small percentage, generally from a younger generation, have genuine enthusiasm and talent.”
Sugaya notes that in the spirit of group think, importers kowtowed to the newfound importance of this organization and failed to offer new experiences to the consumer. As the taste regulators, the JSA failed to train its minions to be dynamic, flexible or even knowledgeable about the world of wine at large. Thus, although choice of product is greater in |
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Japan today, success beyond the traditional template is hard for importers and retailers. Sommeliers continue to wear tuxedos, even in casual restaurants, while championing rituals such as priming glasses, viewed as antiquated in other markets. Little has changed in a decade and worse, wine consumption has fallen. Clearly many Japanese defer to sommeliers when making a choice, yet at the same time feel intimidated by the experience.
It would seem the chance to introduce regular consumers to the riches of wine has – so far - been lost due to rigid conformity and failure to think outside of the box. Wine relinquished a prized position as something hip and artisan, to become a drink that is either white or red. Thus, ubiquitous and lowly categories such as Vin de Table are house pours at ¥400 a glass in fashionable locales such as the brasserie in Tokyo’s Omotesando station, juxtaposed between sandwiches that cost 600. In similar establishments in New York or Sydney, superior wines would be easily sold for eight to 12 dollars a glass. Meanwhile, incongruously, the same wines litter supermarket shelves at less than ¥500 a bottle in the bleak suburbs.
Wine lost its chance to become a part of Japanese culture. Consumers became jaded, unable to distinguish between qualities at all but the high end - and wine became polarized. While common, “it is elitist at one end and an elephant’s dumping ground at the other,” says Ernie Singer of importer, Millésimes.
Cultural Saavy
Cultural savvy is intrinsic to success in the Japanese market. It would have helped, for example, for ambitious Australians to have realized that discounted equations of fruity and frivolous do not translate well to a populous who equate expense with quality. The “sunshine in a glass” mantra popularized by the Australian Wine Bureau throughout the 90s was viewed, according to the Australian wine commentator Dennis Gastin, as vapid by Japanese craving wine as a conduit to culture.
Despite several years of steady growth, Australian wine remains a victim of marketing by large corporations eager to push the largesse of “hard” brands. The legacy of Yellow Tail’s saturation is now being felt, with an Australian decline of close to 30% in value in 2006. Richard Cohen of the Australian importer Village Cellars says “Australian export volumes to Japan over the last five years have grown, but only at the lower end, through a concentrated marketing effort pushing a stereotyped sunshine in a bottle image. This has not helped the wines in the top price brackets. While Australian exporters’ funds were used at the lower end to push fun, the top end needed an image of dimmed lighting and subdued atmosphere. Out of the limelight, but branded with the same image as the lower end, the upper end went backwards. The experience has been frustrating, hitting the off-licence sector hard. On-licence, hand selling saved the day, |
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but five years of steady growth in this sector has not been able to totally compensate for the loss in off-licence sales.” Cohen continues, “Looking on the bright side, beginning in 2006, Wine Australia seems to have recognized the deficiency in marketing policy and has actively instituted fine wine events in Japan, including the promotion “Shiraz, A Modern Day Icon,” hosted by the wine critic Jeremy Oliver. However, the remarkable value advantage we had in the late 90s and early part of this century is gone, put paid to by ad-verse exchange rate movements and ex-winery price rises, leaving us with shelf prices that only just compete with the old world. We will make progress, but it will be slow.”
For most Japanese, France remains synonymous with wine. SOPEXA has done a fine job equating wine with brand France and its connotations of heritage and goodwill. Beaujolais Nouveau is a strong category with around 1,000,000 cases imported in 2005, representing 16% of French sales overall. The Japanese are obsessed with seasonal offerings and Beaujolais Nouveau is the wine associated with nature’s changes. It is often the only glass of wine Japanese consumers will have all year, yet sales in 2006 are down 10-20% from 2005 at 880,000 cases according to the Shuhan News. Optimistically, this may indicate a Japanese interest in alternative styles such as Macon Nouveau, up by 9%, or Novella, up by 10%. On the other hand, the decline may be due to lessons learned as residual stock as past years remains in warehouses.
Off-trade versus on-trade
The United States is most reliant on the off-trade, which is responsible for approximately 57% of its sales, including almost 10% in the convenience store sector, driven by the growth at the low end with items such as Gallo Rossi. Germany is next with close to 50%, and Spain following with just over 40%. Italy relies on the on-trade for more than 40% of its sales due to an Italian food boom, while Australia is at just under 40% - a surprising result for a category that traditionally dominates the off-trade in markets such as the UK and US. On the whole, Italian wines have been in steady decline since 2003. First, they were squeezed by New World competition at the lower end and, secondly, because of their prevalence in the on-trade, continue to suffer more than other sectors due to the drink-driving laws.
Promotions
In a country as brand and fashion conscious as Japan, adept promotions are the key to imbuing wine with a sense of goodwill beyond the notion that anything French is good and, more importantly, puting a glass into consumers’ hands. Beaujolais Nouveau may boom in a seasonal promotional frenzy, but this is a hard act to replicate. It is also difficult to compete with the creative packaging, parties and fashion tie-ins that LVMH can use for Veuve Clicquot - and few other bodies can simply march into town once a year like Bordeaux’s Union of Grands Crus |
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and guarantee sales.
Other players in the Japanese market are forced to be creative and innovative with promotions. According to Kyodo News, efforts to develop the market for American wine in Japan, and bring Japanese tourists to regions such as Napa, have only taken shape in the last five years. The California Wine Institute launched its first major export program in the fall of 2005. The campaign tag-line, ‘’Inspired by Life,’’ is meant to portray the Californian wine industry as ‘’forward thinking, creative and elegant, but approachable,’’ says Joseph Rollo, director of the Wine Institute’s International Department. This appeal to creativity and elegance seems to jive with the Japanese sensibility. It is certainly a better tactic than the initial push by the Australians, who like Walmart, believed that successful strategies elsewhere would translate into success in Japan. Perhaps, like Chile, it is best to ply a safety-first formula of uncontroversial solidity. Chilean promotions are a notable absence in the Japanese scene, yet volume and value remain solid if unspectacular.
In 2006 the California Wine Institute created events including wine-by-the-glass promotions at 35 importers and 314 restaurant locations. There were also promotions at Hanshin department stores that featured 213 California wines and drew more than 6,000 visitors, generating over ¥6 million in sales. Further, there was an ‘’Importer Buying Tour’’ to California which brought 16 representatives to California to meet vintners, according to Kyodo. The Washington Wine Commission also implemented similar events as did Wine Australia with its “Shiraz in a Glass” promotion. Other events promoting California took place at the Kakuyasu liquor convenience store chain, Rakuten, the biggest virtual shopping mall on the Internet, and a ‘’California Wine Visual Display’’ that showed 70 slides in a four minute program run at selected premium wine stores nationwide. The success of these promotions indicates that the Japanese drinker is open to suggestions and alternatives if they are presented in appealing and innovative ways.
The attempt by winemakers to capture more Japanese interest is based on the fact that more than 700,000 Japanese travellers visit California every year - even more go to Australia and Europe. Yet limited vacation time means that they only visit wine regions for a few hours, according to Bill Campbell of Hotei, the largest American importer in Japan. Interestingly, according to Kyodo, the majority of wine tourists are female. This is also reflected in statistics from wine courses around Japan. Perhaps the empowerment of women in Japanese society will lead to new and vital trends in wine consumption. In any case, somebody needs to lead the way.
Greater Involvement
Clearly the onus is on importers to use innovative tactics to bring wine to a fickle consumer, and |
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better, for producers to work with their importers in order to bring a personable touch to what is often an intimidating subject for many Japanese. Yet most producers rely on their importers to do the work with no marketing strategy designed for Japan. For many it seems too foreign or simply too much hard work. Stags Leap Wine Cellars are fortunate enough to receive almost 25,000 Japanese visitors a year thanks to Hotei’s push, yet wineries that do not take the initiative in opening themselves up to the Japanese market may end up missing out on a growing clientele.
Regular visits and contact with sommeliers, restaurateurs and retailers brings slow but ultimately rewarding growth. Francesco Mazzei of Fonterutoli and Denis Horgan of Leeuwin are examples of pioneering producers willing to put in the hard yards necessary to succeed in Japan. Horgan’s importer, Cohen of Village Cellars notes that “Denis visits Tokyo and other major cities in Japan with gusto every year and has seen his label grow in stature and sales. Over the last five years consumption of the Leeuwin wines in Japan has grown 8.0% compound by volume and 6.3% compound by value, against a background of falling exports from Australia in the same price brackets.”
The future
If the JSA and wine writers are failing to change the rigid status-quo in Japan, who is to do so? Clearly women are showing an interest in wine, and their new-found dynamism in society at large is a plus. Importers such as the Vine, with an artisan swag of Rhone Valley wines, are hitting the streets to suggest alternative wines to rubbish at the low end, or Bordeaux and Champagne at the high. Innovative promotions have proven to be successful. The younger breed of sommelier like Ozaki exhibits brio and passion - a breath of fresh air in a stale market.
There are also other pioneers like Carl Robinson, one of the few foreign sommeliers in Japan. Robinson takes an optimistic stance on the Japanese state of affairs. He is not entrenched in any single guise. Currently the CEO of Jeroboam imports, he has worked as buyer for Nissin supermarket, educated Japan Airlines staff and trailed the floor at the American Club as wine director. He calls Japan the “land of opportunity.” His take on the market is that the status-quo is there to be bucked and broken by those willing to work hard and push boundaries. He enthuses that these opportunities would not be possible elsewhere.
Yet just as such pioneers are needed, it is up to the big players to make a commitment to expanding wine’s role in Japan. For the large firms, rather than something embellished with genuine care, wine is a tool or conduit to achieve greater market share at large. Little is done in the way of education - and a numb consumer base remains ignorant.
The large firms must offer new products and hire staff genuinely interested in wine, utilize winemakers and those involved in dynamic promotions, work closely with the JSA to implement systematic change from within and - while convincing the Japanese of wine’s variety beyond French heritage alone - change the status-quo for the better. Part of that will be teaching the Japanese the versatility of wine at the dinner table - even with Japanese food! Great effort is needed or what was once a market with reason for optimism will remain grim.
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