Sho-chu Time / City in Kagoshima Aims to Pass on Culture to Future Generations; First to Declare All Toasts be Made with Shochu

By Yusuke Kadooka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

21:00 JST, January 18, 2025

Kagoshima Prefecture is one of the nation’s major production areas of shochu. This is the seventh and final installment in a series introducing the charm of the distilled spirit and the people involved in its creation.

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ICHIKI-KUSHIKINO, Kagoshima — “Cheers!” A group of residents toasted at a year-end party at a restaurant in Ichiki-Kushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture, in early December, holding a glass of shochu rather than beer.

Shochu plays a key role in promoting the city that is home to eight distilleries, creating a bustling atmosphere.

In 2013, the city became the first local government to establish an ordinance that promotes making a toast with authentic shochu. Ichiki-Kushikino is in an area in the prefecture where shochu production is thriving and the city aims to further popularize and spread the traditional spirit among the public. Here, people traditionally toast with shochu at parties.

“The residents’ desire to pass on shochu culture to future generations is incorporated into the ordinance,” said Takashi Nagasaki, one of the year-end party participants.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the ordinance, the city started offering a course in fiscal 2023 for local high school students to experience shochu production.

The initiative aims to help young people become familiar with the local industry and encourages them to become its successors. Course participants tour a shochu distillery and try their hand at harvesting sweet potatoes, a base ingredient for the drink.

Fifteen students took part in the inaugural course, with four of them joining local shochu distilleries.

Fuma Hattori, 19, joined the distillery Shiraishi Shuzo in spring last year after graduating from the prefectural Ichiki Agricultural & Horticultural High School.

Founded in 1894, Shiraishi Shuzo is a small shochu distillery run by four family members and three employees.

As a second-year high school student, Hattori had a chance to work at the distillery for one week during his school’s work experience program. He said he was surprised to see how huge its sweet potato field was. The room used to mix koji mold with steamed rice, a process called tanezuke, was so hot that he realized how hard it was to produce shochu. Even so, he made up his mind to work in the industry.

“Everyone was so nice, and so I thought this must be the place for me,” Hattori said.

Takafumi Shiraishi, head of the distillery, said he was not looking for any employees at that time, but he decided to hire Hattori due to his desire to work there. Shiraishi was also happy with how Hattori had worked during the work experience program.

Shiraishi Shuzo grows pesticide-free sweet potatoes and although still small in scale, has started exporting its products to France, South Korea and Taiwan.

“We want as many people as possible to get to know the allure of sweet potato shochu,” Shiraishi said. “I hope Hattori will help us.”

Hattori said: “Here, I feel like I’m taking a role in making shochu because of the small number of workers. I’d like to master each job one by one and become an essential employee.”

The city held the program for high school students to experience shochu production again this fiscal year.

“It’s really fun,” said Shintaro Oda, 16, a first-year student of Kamimura Gakuen High School, as he harvested sweet potatoes as part of the program held in November.

Young people are allowed to enjoy shochu only after they turn 20. Many of them decide their future path in life and leave the city before that. Ichiki-Kushikino’s initiative to give young people an opportunity to experience shochu production also aims to help nurture their local pride.

You can read this article in Japanese here.