Pouring sake from a wine bottle and drinking it in a wine glass. Enjoying sake with anime characters. These are some of the unconventional drinking styles being suggested by sake breweries and retailers to attract overseas customers and young people. Now that washoku traditional Japanese cuisine has been registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural property, there is an opportunity for sake to heighten its profile overseas.

Starbucks Coffee Japan plans to open new outlets at an accelerated pace while shifting its focus from urban centers to suburban areas. Over the next three years, the company will spend roughly 15 billion yen ($146 million) to open 260 new coffee shops, which is 60% more than were opened during the last three years. Starbucks now operates some 1,000 stores in Japan, of which around 10% are located in suburban areas along main streets. 

America may have put the first man on the moon, but Japan is going to be the first to send up the first advertising billboard — in the shape of a can. Japanese drink-maker Otsuka is going to send a titanium can that weighs about 2.2 pounds and that can serve as a mini-sized billboard for the company. It’ll be packed with Pocari Sweat powder, which forms into a non-carbonated, citrus-flavored drink when liquid is added, United Press International reported.

Suntory Holdings hopes to generate 1 trillion yen ($9.72 billion) in distilled-liquor sales in 2020 by tapping into the sales network of newly acquired U.S. whiskey giant Beam, Nobutada Saji, the Japanese company's president, said Thursday. Suntory completed the acquisition of Beam on May 1, turning it into Beam Suntory. In 2013, Beam posted sales of some 320 billion yen. Combining this tally with Suntory's distilled-liquor sales would bring the total to about 600 billion yen in terms of shipments, the third-largest in the world.

DOMINO’S Pizza Enterprises has reaffirmed its full-year guidance for Australia and Europe and lifted its guidance for Japan after increasing profit following its acquisition of Domino’s Pizza Japan. Net profit rose by 28.2 per cent to $18.6 million in the six months to December 2013. Revenue soared 89.49 per cent to $265.4 million in the first half. Domino’s will pay an interim dividend of 17.7c, fully franked, on March 11 to shareholders on the record on February 24.

Suntory Holdings Ltd on Monday said it would buy U.S. spirits company Beam Inc for $13.6 billion cash in a deal that would make the Japanese company the world's third-largest spirits maker. Including the assumption of Beam's net debt, the deal is valued at $16 billion. It brings together Beam's Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbons, Courvoisier cognac and Sauza tequila with Suntory's Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki and Kakubin Japanese whiskies, Bowmore Scotch whisky and Midori liqueur.

Scoffing a calorific hamburger the size of your mouth can be difficult while maintaining good table manners. It’s even trickier for women in Japan where small and modest mouths, or ochobo, are considered attractive and the opposite not so much. Social etiquette in the East Asian country also dictates that women should never open their mouth wide in public places.

Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal 2012 remained at 39 % on a calorific input basis for the third consecutive year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced Thursday, August 8. Although rice consumption dropped amid higher prices, the self-sufficiency rate maintained its level, as consumption of Japanese-grown wheat and soybean grew thanks to increased amount of harvested crop, the ministry reported. 

Japan's leading breweries are racing to increase beer production, in anticipation of a rise in demand this summer. Domestic beers are selling well, especially at restaurants and bars. Sapporo Breweries plans to boost its year-on-year production for July by about 10 percent, at factories in Chiba and other regions. Suntory Holdings will also increase its production volume next month by 15 percent. 

Attempting to read and understand food labels in Japan can be a tricky thing. Even when being able to read hiragana, katakana and some kanji, the majority of the food labels are still confusing to many consumers -- EVEN JAPANESE !!  Japan-based blogger Ashley (Surviving Japan) wrote this awesome guide on how to read food labels in Japan which we are now sharing with you. Enjoy to realize what you're eating in Japan! Thanks Ashley !!