Articles
3 storiesSingapore Pours Tatenokawa, NYC Pours Dassai: Two Cities, Two Completely Different Japanese Sake Strategies in 2026
A Japanese brewery that thinks of 'overseas market entry' as a single decision is going to fail in at least one city. In 2025–2026, New York City and Singapore are two completely different Japanese sake markets, with different winning brands, different consumption formats, and different cultural drivers. Dassai dominates NYC to the point of building its own $80M brewery in Hyde Park. In Singapore, the most visible sake brand presence in 2025 was Tatenokawa's custom partnership at a single 10-seat omakase counter. Same category, two different games.
Sake Export Playbook: How to Enter the Singapore Market in 2026
For Japanese breweries and trading companies considering Singapore as an overseas market, the public-source reality is more structured — and more surmountable — than most first-time exporters expect. This playbook covers the regulatory framework (SFA + Singapore Customs), the excise duty math, the three viable entry routes, the distributor landscape, and what public sources cannot tell you.
Japanese Alcohol Exports to Southeast Asia, 2020–2025: A Data Report
Japanese sake exports hit a record ¥45.9 billion in 2025, shipping to 81 countries. But the headline figure hides a more nuanced story for importers in Southeast Asia. This data report compiles the official numbers from Japan's National Tax Agency, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association, and the Ministry of Finance's trade statistics — and explains what they say (and what they don't) about the region's premium Japanese alcohol market.