A book titled Alliance at a Crossroads has been published by Nikkei BP Marketing. The author is Joshua Walker, President of the Japan Society in New York. He describes himself as a "Dosanko American". To be precise, he was not born in Hokkaido, but moved there shortly after birth with his missionary parents and lived there until high school. After graduating from the University of Richmond, he earned a Master's degree from Yale and a Ph.D. in Geopolitics from Princeton. He served in the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense, worked as the Global Strategy Director and Japan Director at the Eurasia Group, and became President of the Japan Society in 2019—a true "expert on Japan" for the new era.
The Japan Society, where Joshua serves as President, is located near the United Nations building in New York and is also known for hosting annual events by the Sake Export Association. It is a U.S. non-profit organization established in 1907 by Japanese and Americans to foster mutual understanding, appreciation, and cooperation. While activities were forced to suspend during the Pacific War, Japan House was constructed after the war thanks to a significant donation from John D. Rockefeller III, and it continues to this day.
The book describes how America has transformed since President Trump's inauguration (and actually even before then), and how Japan is now feeling perplexed as it is required to change its previous "policy of simply relying on the U.S.". It states that we can no longer rely solely on the trust between the President and Prime Minister or government-to-government negotiations to build the Japan-U.S. relationship; instead, there is an increasing need for multi-faceted exchanges involving citizens, such as sister-city programs and corporate expansion.
In fact, Dassai is mentioned here. The author lists Dassai alongside Ito En, starting with Toyota—which shed its image from the 1980s as a foreign brand "invading" the U.S. to take root and achieve economic localization—and Daikin, which seeks to engage culturally with American society by utilizing innovations that address climate change. He notes that Dassai provides something "profoundly human" through its flavor, history, and future vision in a modern age where people tend to be divided, rather than through a relationship defined by geopolitics.
Furthermore, regarding Dassai, the author offers great praise, stating that the very idea that a Japanese sake company believes it can brew the world's finest sake even in the U.S. and provide it to the world is in itself a manifestation of the "soft power" Japan has shown the world.
For Dassai, we are often asked, "Why did you build a brewery in America, and in New York of all places?". What I usually answer at such times is written in this book from a perspective that is clearer, deeper, and broader.
Seen from within the sake industry, Dassai is considered an outlier. An influential editor-in-chief of a certain magazine reportedly told those around him, "Dassai is already finished as a brand because they practice year-round brewing". As this comment suggests, there is a tendency where efforts to downsize a brewery are praised, while expanding a brewery is viewed by some as being a "success-driven demon who only thinks about increasing sales".
I have long felt a sense of discomfort with this way of thinking, which is particularly prominent in the craft sake industry. First, it seems like nothing more than a "convenient excuse to sell sake" for individual breweries. If this continues, sake will turn from a "traditional industry" into a "folklore industry," which will be sublimated into something that merely "persists in a region" and will only result in a future where it is buried in a "remote corner of Japan" within the global context. While the brewery might survive this way, it will bring no impact to Japanese culture itself.
Dassai believes in introducing Japanese culture—born from Japan's history and climate—to the world through "meticulous sake-making," thereby making the value of Japanese culture known globally. Through this, we believe there is something Japan can contribute to the world and to the U.S.. For that to happen, sales must also grow healthily. This is necessary as Japan and all of us strive to live in a capitalist and democratic society.
Dassai used to call itself "a small sake brewery in the mountains of Yamaguchi". At some point, we removed the word "small" and became "a sake brewery in the mountains of Yamaguchi".
To all the brewers who say, "It can't be helped," I think having your own style is fine, but let's aim for growth. Otherwise, aren't the employees of your breweries the ones to be pitied?. I believe Japan will change when you take a "fighting pose". Transformation comes from the "local regions" of Japan, in a corner of Asia. By your own hands.
And so, this is an advertisement for the book. I believe it is a book that should be read not just because Dassai is featured, but when thinking about today's Japan-U.S. relations and the path Japan should take in the future. Please "click" and buy it on Amazon.