Taiwanese Americans Are Helping Bring Japanese Sake to the U.S. Market — And They Have a Deep Affection for Japan
Pacific Research Institute Report by Tato Takahama
By Tato Takahama
Pacific Research Institute via Cultural News
November 1, 2026
Japanese sake is finding an increasingly broad audience in the United States. The people bringing it to American consumers are not only Japanese brewers and importers. Many of the buyers and sales professionals working behind the scenes are Taiwanese or Taiwanese American.
I saw this firsthand at a sake event hosted recently by Mutual Trading in Monterey Park.
Looking around the room, I noticed that many of the participants were Taiwanese buyers and sales representatives. Chinese was being spoken throughout the venue. The women were dressed elegantly, some with carefully applied makeup. Many of the younger women were tall and slender. A veteran actor once well known in Taiwanese cinema was also among the guests. The gathering had as much of a social atmosphere as a business event.
The younger buyers stayed until the end, sampling one sake after another. The grand prize in the raffle was a Dodgers jersey. A Dodgers jersey turning up at a sake event is, of course, very Los Angeles.
I spoke with a Taiwanese woman in her 60s and asked when she first tried sake. She said she was 20 and had tasted it at a sushi restaurant. She particularly liked hot sake with sashimi. I asked why she liked Japanese sake. Her answer was immediate and uncomplicated.
“Because I like Japan, and I like Japanese people.”
I followed up with another question: “Do people drink Japanese sake in mainland China, too?”
“Mainland China? I have no idea. I don’t really care,” she replied.
Her response was personal, of course. But it reminded me that people who speak the same language do not necessarily share the same outlook or interests. The fact that Chinese was widely spoken in the room did not make everyone their part of one uniform community.
I then asked a Taiwanese American man who manages Mutual Trading’s sake division which brand sells best in the United States. He answered without hesitation: Hakkaisan.
Hakkaisan is made by a brewery in Minamiuonuma, Niigata Prefecture, in Japan. The sake is known for its clean, smooth taste and ease of drinking. It may not be a household name throughout Japan, but it has established a strong following in the American market.
There is also a story associated with the brand and former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, who came from Niigata. Tanaka was said to be fond of Hakkaisan, and one account holds that his fondness for the sake helped bring it wider recognition. A brand’s reputation is not built on taste alone. Stories associated with well-known figures can also help introduce a sake to new customers.
According to the Mutual Trading manager, Hakkaisan sells particularly well in California and Las Vegas, and the market is growing in Texas. Japanese sake is no longer confined to Japanese restaurants. It is reaching consumers in different parts of the country and finding a place in a wider range of dining and drinking occasions.
The export figures offer another perspective on the market. In 2025, China was the largest destination for Japanese sake by value, with exports totaling about 13.3 billion yen. The United States ranked second, at approximately 11.05 billion yen. Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan followed. But by volume, the United States ranked first, importing about 7,720 kiloliters, compared with China’s 6,660 kiloliters. The difference suggests that the average value of sake exported to China was higher.
A JETRO survey of Chinese consumers found that people between 26 and 45, particularly those with relatively higher incomes, were an important part of the market. In urban areas, sake is increasingly being enjoyed as part of a broader interest in Japanese food and culture.
But what caught my attention at the Los Angeles event was not the size of the Chinese market. It was the people helping Japanese sake find its customers in the United States. One of the people who has devoted much of her career to that work is Atsuko Kanai, vice president of Mutual Trading.
Her father, Noritoshi Kanai, joined Mutual Trading as general manager in 1965 and became its president in 1976. The company itself dates back to 1926, when it began near Little Tokyo in Los Angeles as a cooperative purchasing organization serving Japanese American stores. Over the decades, it grew into an important supplier of Japanese food products and beverages to the American market.
Atsuko joined the company after graduating from college. She has spent her career there, eventually serving as an officer and then becoming vice president. Her work has included expanding the company’s beverage and sake business and building connections between Japanese breweries and manufacturers and American distributors and buyers. Fluent in both Japanese and English, she has been able to understand the expectations and business practices on both sides of the Pacific.
In an earlier conversation, Atsuko told me that hot sake had played an important role in introducing sake to American consumers. That conversation became part of an article I wrote for Cultural News in September 2026, titled “From a Cup of Hot Sake: Sushi and Sake, a Perfect Pair.”
At the recent event, Atsuko also showed a keen interest in another article of mine, “Knife and Cutting Board.” As we talked, I told her, quite sincerely, “You’ve worked hard. Your father would be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
Bringing sake to the American market involves much more than importing bottles and placing them on store shelves. It takes people who understand the products, explain what makes each brand distinctive, build relationships with buyers and distributors, and introduce sake to people who may be trying it for the first time. That work requires patience, knowledge and a willingness to bridge different cultures and business traditions.
Sake is made in Japan, but the effort to make it part of American life is shared by people from many backgrounds. Taiwanese and Taiwanese American buyers and sales professionals are among those helping build this market. They are not simply selling a Japanese product. They are helping create a larger audience for it.
I keep thinking about the woman at the event who told me, “Because I like Japan, and I like Japanese people.” It was a simple answer, but perhaps it said more than a long explanation could.
The original text was written in Japanese by Tato Takahama. English translation was prepared by the author. Translation assistance tools may have been used.
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cultural News.
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