Nakagawa, CEO of Leaf Publications Inc., which develops and operates the sake media site Sake World, the sake NFT marketplace Sake World NFT, and develops and sells the assemblage-based sake "Assemblage Club," will look back on the company's journey from the start of its sake business to the present, and reveal his future business plans for 2025 and the creation of a new world for sake.

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Leaf Publications Inc. President and CEO Shintaro Nakagawa

Profile

In 2020, he graduated from the University of Toronto's School of Political Science and Economics. In the same year, he joined a construction company and was involved in management work such as the construction of solar power plants. With a desire to spread Japanese sake overseas, he joined Leaf Publications, which was founded in 2024, and became its representative director in XNUMX.

Creating a world where anyone can create, promote and sell sake

-Please tell us how you started your sake business.

Nakagawa: Leaf Publications is a publisher of the magazine "Leaf," which mainly deals with gourmet information. We have been providing information for over 20 years, working closely with the cities of Kyoto and Shiga, with the theme of "connecting with the city."
In addition to publishing, we have also organized food-related events, mainly in Kyoto and Shiga, which we have connected with through magazine interviews and other activities. In fact, we have had relationships with the sake industry for over 10 years, and in order to enliven our local area of ​​Fushimi, Kyoto, we have been disseminating information about sake and organizing various sake events. However, the COVID-XNUMX pandemic hit us hard, with our client restaurants ceasing to advertise in our magazine and canceling gourmet events. As people continued to move away from magazines, we ultimately chose the sake business as a new business to replace magazines.

Sake production peaked in 1973, and since then, production has been steadily declining due to factors such as a decline in alcohol consumption, and an increasing number of sake breweries are going out of business. Furthermore, as restaurants stopped serving alcoholic beverages due to the COVID-XNUMX pandemic, sake sales have plummeted. In this situation, rather than just indirectly attracting customers through events, they began to wonder if there was a way to more directly contribute to increasing the sales of sake breweries and the sales volume of sake.

-What exactly does your vision mean - "To create a world where anyone can create, promote and sell sake"?

Nakagawa: "I felt that there were not many people around me who enjoyed drinking sake. If I was planning a new business to increase the sales of sake, wouldn't a service that would make people who drink alcoholic beverages but don't often drink or buy sake on a daily basis want to buy sake be more likely to contribute to the sake industry? First, I decided to consider in my own words, 'In what situations would I personally buy sake?'"

"If I were to become a creator and create sake, and then sell and promote it, I would buy the sake."

"To me, the act of drinking sake is an extraordinary form of entertainment, and one that consumes money and time. When I wondered if there was a way to enhance the enjoyment of sake as entertainment beyond the simple act of 'drinking', I thought that if, in addition to drinking, you could make it yourself and sell it, then its appeal as entertainment would increase even more."

*The "creator economy" refers to an economic sphere in which consumers can disseminate and sell information as creators, and currently exists in a variety of fields such as videos, photos, and text on sites such as YouTube and Instagram.

An environment where anyone can sell sake ① - The barrier of the Liquor Tax Act -

-Sake cannot be sold without a license, so how did you resolve that issue?

Nakagawa: "The Liquor Tax Act requires that you have a liquor license to sell sake, so not everyone can sell sake. Is there any way to make it possible for people without a liquor license to sell sake in response to this issue? We came up with the idea of ​​separating the actual sake from the rights to it, and storing the actual sake as a liquor license holder, and turning the right to receive the sake into an NFT ticket, and then using that NFT ticket to ship the actual sake at any time. With this system, when the actual sake is handed over, it can be done with the liquor license we hold, and when general users buy and sell sake, it will not be treated as a sale of alcohol, like beer tickets. We prepared various terms and conditions based on this idea, and had the National Tax Agency check it, and they replied that our system allows general users without a liquor license to buy and sell sake. And so, the system "Sake World NFT" was born, which allows anyone to buy and sell sake in the form of an NFT ticket."

▲The Governor of Kyoto Prefecture and the Mayor of Kyoto (at the time) were also present at the press conference announcing the launch of the service.

Patent has been obtained

Nakagawa: "Sake World NFT is a revolutionary service in that users can purchase NFTs after specifying storage conditions such as the number of years the physical item will be kept. We have obtained patents for this system (Patent No. 7389527 and Patent No. 7337425). In addition, because this system can be applied to alcoholic beverages other than sake, we were able to obtain patents for not only sake, but also wine, whiskey, and other types of alcohol."

An environment where anyone can sell sake②－The barrier of a sake manufacturing license－

-So how was the issue of the manufacturing license resolved?

Nakagawa: "Currently, it is virtually impossible to obtain a new sake brewing license in Japan. The reason for this is that when issuing a sake brewing license, the Liquor Tax Act stipulates that "in order to protect the liquor tax, it is necessary to maintain a balance between supply and demand for alcoholic beverages," and this is done to prevent oversupply. Also, as domestic sake consumption continues to decline, the background to this is that the supply of existing sake breweries needs to be maintained and protected as much as possible. Because of this background, new sake brewing licenses cannot be issued in Japan, so some breweries have obtained licenses to brew other brewed alcoholic beverages instead of sake, and have begun manufacturing and selling a new category of "craft sake" by adding secondary ingredients to sake, or have applied to create a special zone in Japan where they can obtain new licenses. There are efforts underway to make it easier to make sake. In response to this, we came up with the idea of ​​blending sake, creating new flavors by mixing pre-made sakes. Blended sake is not made by fermenting rice from scratch, but it has the advantages of 1) making it possible to create new flavors in small batches, and 2) allowing for fine adjustments to the flavor that are difficult to achieve using fermentation techniques alone. Furthermore, our vision of a 'world where anyone can create sake' also envisions casual general users, so we believe that blending is a good way to allow casual users to easily make sake.

Development of Blended Sake [Assemblage Club]

-Please tell us about Assemblage Club.

"'Assemblage' means blending in French, and when blending wine, it is said to be assemblage. It is the mainstream method of production in France, Italy, Spain, etc. However, at first, we were worried about whether it was okay to mix sake that the breweries had made with great care, and whether blending would make the taste worse. However, with the cooperation of Masuda Tokubei Shoten, Kitagawa Honke, and Matsui Sake Brewery, three traditional sake breweries in Kyoto, we have come to understand that there are flavors in sake that can only be produced by assemblage, such as layering flavors and rounding off edges. We entered our first product, 'Assemblage Club 01 CODE NAME: Taro', in the Singapore Sake Challenge 2023, where it won the gold medal. It was very pleasing to see that a product created by blending was recognized at an international competition."

Needs for original blended sake

Nakagawa: "We started to see an increase in the purchase of Assemblage Club sake, mainly from luxury hotels and teppanyaki restaurants. After that, we received requests from an eel specialty restaurant and a popular Kyoto izakaya group to create a blend of sake specifically for their store, and we realized there was a certain demand for creating original sake."

It was discovered that blending sake has the advantage of allowing for fine adjustments to flavor that are difficult to make using fermentation techniques alone, and making it possible to create new flavors in relatively small batches.

An environment where "anyone can make sake"Obtaining a liquor manufacturing license

Nakagawa: "We used to outsource the production of Assemblage Club to sake breweries, but due to an increase in the number of orders, we decided to acquire a sake brewery with a manufacturing license and add it to our group."

In order to anticipate an increase in orders for made-to-order sake in the future and to be able to respond flexibly to the needs of making made-to-order sake, the company took over the business of Makino Shuzo Honten. By incorporating Makino Shuzo Honten into the group, the company plans to strengthen its made-to-order sake manufacturing capabilities and expand its services to individuals.

A place where "anyone can make sake"

-This will lead to "My Sake World," a facility where anyone can create their own sake blends.

Nakagawa: "My Sake World is a facility that will open on November 2024, 11, where you can create your own original sake, "My Sake". The aim is to spread the creation of custom-made blended sake not only to restaurants but also to general users, so that they can have their own original sake, "My Sake", by blending. My Sake World currently uses sake from 20 sake breweries as base sake, and blends these to complete the recipe for the original sake. After the recipe is completed, you can receive an NFT with the recipe and a sample product, or you can order sake with your original recipe on the spot and receive it in the form of a physical product or a sake NFT. Blended sake can be produced at the group's sake breweries."

【store information】
<My Sake World Oike Bettei> *Scheduled to open on January 2025, 1
Location: 123 Fukunagacho, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

<My Sake World Kyoto Kawaramachi Store> *Scheduled to open in spring 2025
Location: 711 Uematsucho, Teramachi-dori Matsubara-sagaru, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

Future developments for Sake World

Nakagawa: "At Sake World, we are moving forward with our vision of a world where anyone can create, promote, and sell sake. We have finally completed obtaining the various licenses necessary to achieve this vision, and a "sake creator economy" is about to be born. From now on, Sake World will work to spread the word not only in Japan, but around the world. To make this vision a reality, we still lack both friends and partners. We are looking for enthusiastic friends who share our vision, partners who can help us achieve it, and sake lovers who will help liven up the sake creator economy. If any of these apply to you, let's get sake excited together!"

The company is striving to gain a unique position through its licenses and patents.
He holds various licenses to handle alcoholic beverages and has multiple business-related patents.
We have established a unique and unrivaled position.

possession license
① Mail order liquor retail license, ② Liquor retail license (issued before June 1989)
③Own trademark wholesale license ④Liquor import/export wholesale license ⑤Liquor sales intermediary license
Permit (Under review until October 2024), ⑥ Liquor manufacturing license (Sake and single-distilled shochu)
Acquired patents
Sake World: 3 patents related to NFT core system
(Patent No. 7337425, Patent No. 7389527, Patent No. 7493280

・Sake World's media business
・Sake World NFT mail order business
・Assemblage Club manufacturing business
・Sake World Kura's sake brewery business
・My Sake World store business

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