"Kaku-uchi" Goes to Stockholm: IMADEYA and ANA Launch a Sake Culture Project in Sweden

IMADEYA, a specialty sake shop based in Chiba, Japan, is partnering with All Nippon Airways (ANA) to bring the Japanese "kaku-uchi" experience to Stockholm on April 18–19. The event will be held at YASURAGI, a Japanese-style onsen spa on the outskirts of the Swedish capital, featuring five Japanese breweries that have never been available in Sweden.

Kaku-uchi is a Japanese drinking tradition where customers buy sake at a bottle shop and drink it right there at the counter — an informal, standing-bar style that's deeply rooted in everyday Japanese drinking culture. While Japanese sake is increasingly available abroad, it tends to be positioned as a premium product served at high-end restaurants. The casual, neighborhood-bar feeling of kaku-uchi is virtually unknown overseas.

Five Breweries, None Yet in Sweden

The participating breweries are:

• Sohomare (Tochigi, est. 1872) — a consistent winner at Japan's Annual Sake Awards
• Abekan (Miyagi, est. 1716) — known for food-pairing sake designed to complement the seafood of Shiogama
• Yamashiroya (Niigata, est. 1845)
• Niida Shizenshu (Fukushima, est. 1711) — brews exclusively with natural rice and spring water, known for its "natural sake" philosophy
• Kounotukasa (Aichi, est. 1830)

All five have loyal followings in Japan but zero presence in the Nordic market. The event will include guided tastings, warm sake (kan-zake) seminars, and pairings with Japanese cuisine.

Why YASURAGI?

The venue itself is part of the story. YASURAGI is a well-known Japanese-style spa and hotel outside Stockholm that recreates Japanese onsen culture in Scandinavia. It has won a World Luxury Spa Award. As a setting for kaku-uchi — typically found in modest neighborhood shops — it's unconventional, but it provides a fully immersive Japanese cultural environment for attendees.

Akebono, a company that promotes Japanese sake across the Nordics, is supporting the event's local operations.

ANA's Play: From Sake to Inbound Tourism

ANA's involvement makes strategic sense. Under its "Inspiration of JAPAN" brand, the airline sees food culture as a gateway to inbound travel demand. If a Swedish consumer falls for the sake they taste at YASURAGI, the next step — visiting the brewery in rural Japan — requires a flight.

IMADEYA executive Azusa Ogura says the project aims to make people "want to visit Japan" through firsthand experience with sake culture. Future plans include developing brewery-visit experiences within Japan for international visitors, creating a pipeline from overseas tasting events to domestic sake tourism.

The project is also open to other companies and organizations that share the same vision, with plans to grow into a consortium-style initiative.

Taking something as everyday as kaku-uchi and exporting it wholesale to Scandinavia is an unusual bet. How Stockholm responds will be worth watching.