Fukushima Wins National Sake Competition for Uncharted 6th Year

May 18, 2018

Fukushima- Fukushima Prefecture won the national sake title for the unprecedented sixth straight year, the National Research Institute of Brewing said Thursday.

The northeastern prefecture had the largest number of award-winning sake brands including 19 that earned the Gold Prize.

A total of 850 sake brands nationwide were submitted to the competition, the Annual Japan Sake Awards. Of them, 232 were Gold Prize winners.

Among Fukushima breweries, Kokken Brewery Co.'s Kokken won the top prize for the 11th year in a row, and Higashinihonshuzo Productivity Improvement Cooperative's Okunomatsu and Nagurayama Sake Brewery Co.'s Nagurayama for the 10th year.

"We achieved the sixth straight year of victory despite the severe situation due to rumors (about radiation contamination)," Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori told a ceremony held in the prefectural government's head office in the city of Fukushima, referring to the fallout from the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

"I hope to promote excellent sake produced in Fukushima in and outside Japan," he added. Jiji Press