The awards ceremony for SAKE COMPETITION 2026 will be held on Wednesday, June 10, at THE LINKPILLAR 1 SOUTH, B2 level, in Tokyo's new Takanawa Gateway City. Tickets are on sale to the public via Peatix. By the end of that evening, a single bottle from 1,190 entries — submitted by 367 breweries from around the world — will be named the year's best commercial sake.

SAKE COMPETITION is run by an executive committee operated by Hasegawa Saketen and Sunny Side Up. Its premise is simple: pick the world's best commercially available sake, judged blind, with all labels hidden. "The goal is for people to know which commercial sakes are genuinely good," says Koichi Hasegawa, president of Hasegawa Saketen.

367 breweries, 1,190 bottles

This year's entries totaled 1,190 bottles — 1,139 seishu (Japanese sake) plus 51 awamori — from 367 breweries worldwide. Preliminary and final judging rounds were held from May 12 to 14 at THE LINKPILLAR 1 SOUTH, B1 level, in the same building that will host the awards ceremony.

Judging happens in two stages, preliminary and final, with all labels concealed throughout. The design is meant to ensure that brand recognition cannot drive the ranking — only what is in the glass.

A year shaped by rice prices

Speaking at the judging, Iwao Niizawa, president of Niizawa Brewing, noted: "We've felt firsthand how difficult it has become to source rice with these price hikes." Rice shortages and price spikes have been the industry's shared headache for the past few years.

Even so, 1,190 bottles came in. It says something that 367 breweries chose to put a bottle of their best forward in a year like this.

You can be in the room

The awards ceremony itself is open to the public. Top finishers in each category will be announced, and trophies handed over, in B2 of THE LINKPILLAR 1 SOUTH on June 10. Tickets are on Peatix.

You can't sit in on the judging, but you can be in the room the night the results go public — the moment the year's best commercial sake gets its name called.

Event details

Awards ceremony

  • Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
  • Venue: THE LINKPILLAR 1 SOUTH, B2, Takanawa Gateway City, Tokyo
  • Tickets: On sale via Peatix — https://peatix.com/event/4764559

Official site

Organizer

  • SAKE COMPETITION Executive Committee (operated by Hasegawa Saketen and Sunny Side Up)

A competition this size, in a year when rice itself is in short supply, makes the night of June 10 feel a little weightier than usual. We'll be watching to see which brewery walks home with what.