Japanese diplomat’s WW2 bravery inspires brewery to make kosher sake

Published: 1 April 2021

Last updated: 5 March 2024

Locals in the hometown of Chiune Sugihara, later honoured as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for his actions to save Jews, have literally bottled the spirit of his legacy

TUCKED WITHIN the mountains of Japan’s Gifu prefecture, in the middle of Takayama, lies Funasaka Sake Brewery. With its dark-wood walls and stacked sake barrels, it looks typical. But inside is a surprise: Funasaka sells top-notch kosher sake.

Less than one percent of the Japanese population identifies as Jewish, but according to Hiroki Arisu, the brewery’s 35-year-old president and CEO, the land-locked prefecture welcomes more than 10,000 Israeli travellers annually — an impressive number given Takayama is home to fewer than 90,000 residents.

So why do so many Israelis visit the modestly sized city, and in numbers great enough to inspire a local brewery to navigate Judaism’s famously complicated dietary laws?

The roots of the influx go back to World War II, when Chiune Sugihara, a local of Gifu, took action in a way that earned him, in 1985, just before his death at age 86, the honorific “Righteous Among the Nations” from the state of Israel.

FULL STORY The heartwarming history behind a brewery’s kosher sake (Atlas Obscura)

Photo: Rabbi Edery and CEO Hiroki Arisu outside Funasaka Sake Brewery in Gifu, Japan (Courtesy of Kosher Japan)