Norimasa Yamamoto didn’t set out to save sake. He studied economics at Kyoto, worked at a startup, had business dreams of his own. Then his father got sick, and he returned home to Wakayama to take over the family brewery, Heiwa Shuzo. What happened next surprised everyone – including him.
Norimasa Yamamoto didn’t set out to save sake. He studied economics at Kyoto, worked at a startup, had business dreams of his own. Then his father got sick, and he returned home to Wakayama to take over the family brewery, Heiwa Shuzo. What happened next surprised everyone – including him. Under Norimasa Yamamoto leadership, Heiwa Shuzo racked up back-to-back Sake Brewery of the Year titles, launched urban doburoku bars in Tokyo and Osaka, and partnered with Vietnam’s Mùa Craft Sake to prove ‘nihonshu’ can thrive beyond Japan’s borders.
His approach has been to ditch the hierarchies, treat competitors as allies, and take tradition and make it feel urgent. He’s building a movement, not just a business. And like his favorite manga ‘Slam Dunk,’ it’s about falling in love with the game.
Falling In Love
The manga ‘Slam Dunk’ made Japan fall in love with basketball. The series sold over 100 million copies worldwide and inspired a generation of Japanese youth to pick up the sport. Heiwa Sake Brewery’s fourth president, Norimasa Yamamoto, carries some of its evangelical energy, only he wants to connect young consumers – in Japan and beyond – with sake. “Slam Dunk was my favorite manga in high school,” he admits with a smile.
He’s got his work cut out for him. Sake consumption in Japan has been sliding for decades – domestic shipments have dropped nearly 70% since their 1970s peak. Younger Japanese drinkers have drifted toward beer, wine, and whisky, viewing sake as their grandparents’ drink. But overseas, the story’s different. International exports have surged, nearly tripling in the past decade. From New York to Singapore, sake’s gaining ground as a sophisticated, versatile alternative to wine – even regularly appearing in MICHELIN-star restaurants as part of the pairing.
Yamamoto took an unconventional route to sake brewing. After studying economics at Kyoto University, he spent three years at a human resources startup with entrepreneurial ambitions of his own. Then his father fell ill. At the same time, he’d begun to feel that it would be quite difficult to start his own business, so he decided to take over his family’s brewery and returned to Wakayama.
Top Honors
The pivot paid off. His Kido Mugyozan Junmai Ginjo claimed top honors in the sake category at the 2020 International Wine Challenge, while Heiwa Shuzo swept Sake Brewery of the Year in both 2019 and 2020. “Winning the Champion Sake award was a surprise for us,” he says, “but I was really happy to be able to share this good news with our team members who have worked so hard to brew our sake.”
Under Yamamoto’s leadership, the brewery – established in 1928 in Wakayama – has become synonymous with craft, quality, and innovation. Beyond its award-winning Kid sake brand, Yamamoto has expanded the brewery’s reach with Heiwa Doburoku Breweries, urban outlets serving unfiltered doburoku sake – a kind of rustic, unfiltered rice wine – in Tokyo and Osaka.
Making Sake With Mùa
But Heiwa Shuzo’s reach extends beyond Japan. The brewery partnered with Mùa Craft Sake to help launch Vietnam’s first homegrown sake brand.
The project began in Hoi An’s Tra Que Village with Mùa Hoi An, a farm-to-table restaurant showcasing local produce, before expanding to Ho Chi Minh City. There, Mùa Craft Sake pairs house-made sake made with ST25 rice (a local award-winning product) with Chef Tru Lang’s Vietnamese-inflected izakaya cuisine. And its sake now appears in supermarkets and stores in Vietnam and beyond.
With award-winning sakes from Heiwa Shuzo, unfiltered doburoku pouring at his Tokyo and Osaka outlets, and next-generation collaborations like Mùa Craft Sake, we had to ask: which bottle would he pour to make us fall in love with sake?
Yamamoto’s answer is typically collaborative. “In order to cultivate more sake fans, it’s not enough to serve one sake alone; diversity is necessary,” he explains. “And so, I see other companies in the industry not as rivals, but as friends in spreading the word about sake.”
The Joy Of Work
The sentiment rings true at Heiwa Shuzo, where he’s ditched the traditional apprenticeship model. “My approach is that not only me as a manager, but our staff can experience the joy of work,” he explains. Everyone on the team gets hands-on with sake production – no hierarchy and no waiting your turn.
That team-first mentality isn’t just talk. Yamamoto looked beyond the insular sake world for inspiration, drawing from business leaders rather than the industry’s traditional hierarchies. “I’ve always wanted to be a manager in the business world since I was a child, so I believe this is my calling,” he explains. “I’ve especially loved food since I was little, so I’m happy to be involved in food culture.”
Even his flagship sake carries the philosophy. Kid – like the English word it means child in Japanese – and that’s exactly how he approaches production: like raising one. The fruity, modern sake also signals his intent to go after a younger market in Japan. And while he’s doing so, spread the word about sake in the region and beyond.
Making Tradition Feel Urgent Again
His respect for the Mùa project, in particular, runs deep, even if most Japanese brewers haven’t caught on yet. “To be honest, I think there are few sake breweries in Japan that know about Mùa,” he admits. “Japanese sake breweries are too busy with their own concerns.”
But he sees it differently.
“I have a lot of respect for Mùa’s project, which involves making sake using Vietnamese rice and delivering it to Vietnamese people.”
The trajectory mirrors Slam Dunk’s Hanamichi Sakuragi – a character who stumbled into basketball for the wrong reasons, then falls hard for the game itself. Yamamoto, like Sakuragi, found his calling once he got on the court. Now he’s playing to win, treating competitors as teammates and building a movement that makes tradition feel urgent again.
Norimasa Yamamoto and Heiwa Sake Brewery as well as Mùa Craft Saké will be amongst 20 domestic and international partners at the first Saigon Sake Fest, held on 12th December. Click here for tickets and more information.
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