Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a while. How are you?This winter in Japan is undoubtedly cold. Corona infections and influenza are spreading at the same time, so let's take good care of your health care.
From January 15th to the early morning of January 22nd, I went on a business trip to the United States for the first time in three years since the outbreak of the coronavirus.The destination is Manhattan, New York.
The purpose of this business trip to the United States was to conduct a field survey to promote the overseas branding business of treasured sake. It was very meaningful to be able to experience it.
The damage caused by the coronavirus in the United States, which has not been accurately reported in Japan, is everywhere, and although people are moving away from wearing masks, my honest impression is that the corona disaster has not yet been completely eradicated.With deteriorating public safety, less bustling streets, and abnormally high prices, Manhattan, the city of skyscrapers that has longed for all over the world, seems to have faded a little.
On the other hand, the situation of Japanese restaurants that serve sake is also completely polarized, with high-end restaurants almost disappearing from Midtown and many more prominent in the lower Manhattan district, which is the southern area. .On the other hand, the number of take-out sushi restaurants, which are like “Nanchatte Japanese sushi restaurants,” has increased, and the influence of the corona era has been strongly reflected.
Even in wine shops and liquor shops that are liquor stores, there are many cases where the display of sake has moved to a conspicuous place near the entrance compared to before, and I was surprised by the change. .I felt that the popularity of sake is steadily increasing even during the corona crisis.
The sake brands on the menu of the Japanese restaurant I visited this evening have clearly increased in value. High-quality sake such as Kito is priced at a price that is incomparably high compared to Japan, and it is actually popular among wealthy young people of Asian descent (especially Chinese descent) other than Japanese. There was a reality that was drunk.
I could no longer feel the power of Japanese people as customers, and I felt a little lonely, but I witnessed the fact that sake branding was steadily progressing in Manhattan.
We have been looking at this Manhattan market as our main export market for some time, and although it is a place where competition is fierce, we will start by the end of this year as soon as we have a prospect of securing a logistics route on the local side for exports. We would like to work positively in order to realize the first export.
We will be able to meet with investor candidates who are candidates for sponsorship locally, and by explaining our company's current situation and future challenges, we will be able to obtain a variety of future support depending on the details of the plan. I also realized that there is a possibility.
Manhattan in January this year was unexpectedly cold.It was a week that gave me courage and energy to visit places that I used to live in in the past for a long time.
On the way back to Japan, I stopped by Los Angeles on the west coast for the first time in a while, and it was a very meaningful time to meet people involved in sake for the first time.
In the future, I would like to steadily build up my sake business so that I can visit the United States on a regular basis.
R Unicorn International Co., Ltd.
Representative Director Hiroyuki Takami