As of 2024, there were 493 wineries in Japan, jumping from 238 in 2008—more than doubled in 16 years, according to the Japanese government. The wineries are now in 46 prefectures out of the total 47, indicating that each prefecture has potential for wine production.
Some American importers have already noticed the rapid development of Japanese wine. One of them is Direct Import Vines (D-I Wine), a natural wine importer in New York.
“What we love about Japan’s wine is how it reflects the country’s deep dedication to craft, precision and subtlety. The same meticulous attention to detail that defines Japanese cuisine and design shows up in the vineyards and cellars, with winemakers carefully coaxing out dedicated, expressive flavors from native grapes like Koshu and Muscat Bailey A," says D-I Wine’s founder Bretton Taylor.
The company started to import Japanese wine in 2021 and now has a portfolio of 8 wineries in 5 different regions.
One of them is Coco Farm and Winery. It was founded in 1958 by educator Noboru Kawada to provide meaningful work for individuals with learning disabilities. All wines are made with grapes grown in Japan and no chemical fertilizers or herbicides are used in its vineyards; natural wild yeast is the main fermentation method in the winery. Coco Farm’s wine has been highly acclaimed. It has been served at G7 summits and on Japan Airlines’ first and business classes, for example.
“We started to have increasingly more export inquiries from overseas in the past few years. They seem to be interested in Japanese wine’s clear, delicate expression of the grapes, often with gentle umami, which goes well with Japanese food as well as other various types of cuisine,” says Shoko Ochi, director of communication at Coco Farm.
“Within Japan, there is a wide range of micro-terroir. The farms we work with beautifully express it,” she says. To showcase the diversity and the character of each micro-terroir, Coco Farm procures grapes from reliable natural grape growers nationwide, in addition to its own vineyards in Tochigi, Yamagata and Hokkaido Prefectures.
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