Yo-Ho Brewing: dispensing with the preliminaries

Yo-Ho Brewing, producer of the popular Yona Yona Ale, is one of Japan’s largest and most publicly visible craft breweries. From its iconic hand pumps in bars that basically paved the way for Real Ale in Japan to its eye-catching cans available even in grocery and convenience stores, there are few craft beer consumers in…

Germany

Germany. No other country is more closely associated with beer in the public imagination. Japan even offers ample proof. When liberalization of Japanese brewing laws in 1994 allowed for the dawning of small-scale brewing in Japan, the vast majority of those early microbreweries began making German-style beers. Like the Meiji-era all over again, German brewers…

Michinoku Fukushima Beer

by Ry Beville Michinoku Fukushima Beer was one of the many early Japanese craft breweries to go with German-style brews. Since then the brewery has evolved and ultimately survived, not simply the early craft beer crash but also the 3-11 earthquake-tsunami disaster that rocked Tohoku and damaged the good Fukushima name. Producing a high quality…

The Beer Professors

Jesper Edman is a professor in the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University and Christina Ahmadjian is a professor in the Graduate School of Commerce and Management at Hitotsubashi University. The two have been researching entrepreneurship and innovation in Japan, including how it relates to craft beer. Students, get your notepads ready.…

Kobayashi Tsutomu (Kobatsu)

Kobayashi Tsutomu, owner of the import company Kobatsu Trading, has so well branded himself through his charisma that many call him by his company name: Kobatsu-san. Ever seen the big, smiling Japanese guy in traditional German lederhosen and tall hat at beer festivals? That’s him. He’s definitely no poser just wearing a costume, but an…