Dassai signs deal for a third sake brewery in Iwakuni
The premium sake maker will build a ¥9.84bn plant near its Yamaguchi headquarters, aimed squarely at bottles that retail above ¥10,000.
Dassai has signed an investment agreement with the city of Iwakuni to build a third brewery, a ¥9.84bn ($60m) plant focused on sake bottles retailing above ¥10,000.
The new facility will rise near Dassai's existing headquarters in Shuto, within Iwakuni, in Japan's Yamaguchi prefecture. The company says it will produce roughly 5,000 koku a year, a traditional Japanese unit equal to about 180,000 litres, once fully operational.
Iwakuni City's agreement grants incentives tied to the project, including grants equivalent to the fixed-asset taxes the brewery would otherwise owe, according to Sake Industry News.
A ¥9.84 billion bet that the world still wants its sake expensive and small-batch.
Dassai's own announcements have given conflicting timelines. An earlier company diary entry put the cost near ¥10bn and targeted completion in 2027; its most recent public statements point to operations starting in June 2028, with the brewery built specifically for premium bottles priced above ¥10,000 (about $65).
The move comes a year after Asahi Shuzo, the company behind Dassai, renamed itself Dassai Inc. on 1 June 2025. The rebrand accompanied a stated goal of reaching ¥100bn ($639m) in annual revenue.
Dassai already runs breweries in Shuto and, since 2023, a dedicated facility in New York's Hudson Valley, among the first sake breweries built by a Japanese producer on US soil.
A third plant for the top tier
The Iwakuni expansion targets the high end of a category that has grown increasingly polarised. Premium junmai daiginjo, the grade Dassai built its name on, keeps finding buyers abroad even as everyday sake consumption keeps falling at home.
Rice is the other pressure point behind the investment. Sake rice quality has fallen as Japan's summers heat up, pushing brewers to pay more for grain that performs reliably at the exacting specifications premium sake requires.
Construction still some way off
No groundbreaking date has been confirmed. Dassai says it will update the schedule as design work on the Shuto-adjacent site progresses.
Even on the slower of its two timelines, the brewery would open years before most of the sake it eventually bottles has finished ageing on export shelves.
