How wine revitalizedthe Hokkaido town of Yoichi

Voices raising concerns about Japan’s declining population continue to grow louder. But the mayor of Yoichi in Hokkaido, Keisuke Saito, isn’t among them. In just a few years since taking office in 2018, this capable leader has transformed the rural town of 17,000 residents into a world-renowned wine-producing region.

“The village of Gevrey-Chambertin in France’s Burgundy region, which signed a sister-city agreement with us in February, has a population of about 3,000. Yet it is globally acclaimed as a premier wine-producing region, and its residents live prosperously. Economic vitality is the thing that should be the main focus,” he said.

Before we hear from the mayor on his efforts to revitalize Yoichi through wine, let’s quickly review wine’s history in Japan.

It is a relatively short story, with winemaking having begun in Japan less than 150 years ago. Many of the nation’s wineries used table grapes like Delaware as their main raw material, producing distinctive wines.

Then in 2005, a major incident occurred that changed the history of Japanese wine. Renowned wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr. awarded an exceptionally high score of 87 to 88 points out of 100 to a white wine made from Koshu, a native grape variety grown in Yamanashi Prefecture that is used for winemaking as well as eaten fresh. With this, Japanese wine started attracting international attention, and winemakers started focusing on wine grapes.

However, at that time, the Japanese wines receiving high praise outside of Koshu were mainly white wines, including those made from German-origin Kerner grapes. Red wines, especially those made from European grape varieties like pinot noir, were given less attention.

Then a red wine from Yoichi changed things. In February 2020, the 2017 Nana-Tsu-Mori pinot noir from Domaine Takahiko in Yoichi was included on the wine list at Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that has been leading the global gastronomic scene since the 2010s and is repeatedly named the world’s best restaurant. This put Yoichi on the map as a high-quality wine region both domestically and internationally — and it was Saito who made it happen.

“After becoming mayor, I decided to increase the budget to transform the town, setting my sights on high-yield wines. It wasn’t just about bottling and selling; pairing wines with fine dining and lodging can boost local tourism and appeal to the world’s wealthy, foodies and wine enthusiasts. So, despite having no prior connections, I messaged the chef sommelier at Noma directly on social media to pitch Domaine Takahiko’s wines,” he said.

“Compared to French or Italian cuisine, Nordic traditions of hunting, gathering, salting and fermenting foods to survive winter align more closely with Hokkaido’s culinary heritage. We approached marketing from this perspective, targeting Noma. Of course, this was only possible because we knew Domaine Takahiko’s pinot noir was an exceptional wine,” he said.

Following this breakthrough, Domaine Takahiko was flooded with orders from around the world. Bottles with a cellar release price of about ¥4,000 surged to retail prices exceeding ¥80,000, and in restaurants in London and Singapore, they are now being served for the equivalent of about ¥500,000 ($3,400).

The influence of Domaine Takahiko, which opened in Yoichi in 2010 as the town’s second winery, has been immense. Several other wineries followed in its footsteps, and several of their wines have also received high praise. Yoichi now has 20 wineries. This boom was facilitated by its designation as a Special District for Wine in 2011, which made it possible for wineries to obtain a wine production license even for small-scale production of just 2,000 liters per year.

“For Yoichi, it’s better to have 100 wineries each contributing a little power than to have one company exerting 100 times the force. Each winery is small-scale, producing distinctive wines that are highly popular,” Saito said. “Currently, supply is not nearly enough to meet demand. Globally, wine consumption is declining and hit its lowest levels in 60 years in 2024. Even in renowned wine regions, areas mass-producing uniform wines are reducing production. Yoichi’s wineries, however, are largely unaffected. This is the result of focusing on branding to enhance value, rather than expanding distribution channels.”

While Yoichi still has many vineyards and wineries cultivating German grape varieties, Saito has introduced a policy offering 1.5 times the subsidy for expanding cultivation of globally popular varieties like pinot noir and chardonnay.

“There is some pushback from producers, but cultivating higher-value varieties also leads to increased producer income and is rational for ensuring the survival of farms,” he said.

In fact, the results are already being seen. Wine now accounts for 30% of the items offered as return gifts for donations to Yoichi. Hometown tax donations to Yoichi surged from ¥60 million in fiscal year 2017 to over ¥1.5 billion in 2024.

“All funds raised through those measures are fully allocated to child-rearing support,” Saito said. “We’ve made elementary and junior high school lunches and medical expenses up to age 18 free of charge. We’ve established an exemption for child care fees for children ages 0 to 2. We also provide support for infertility treatment and epidural births, as well as assistance with scholarship repayments for young people. Thanks to these measures, while we are still seeing a decline in our population, we’ve managed to keep the rate of decline at a minimum.”

This has brought new challenges, such as shortages of child care workers and after-school program instructors, but major reforms always bring some pain. Several lodging facilities funded by domestic and international investments are slated for construction, and gourmet restaurants are growing in number. Yoichi clearly has laid the foundations to become a high-end wine tourism destination.

北海道の余市町長、齊藤啓輔は2018年に町長に就任してからわずか数年で、同町を、世界から注目されるワイン産地に仕立て上げた実力者だ。町の税収などを高めるため、生産性の高いワインに着目した。

「美食や宿泊と合わせれば観光にもつながりますし、世界の富裕層やフーディー、ワイン愛好家に対してのアピールにもなる」と考え、世界に圧倒的な影響力をもつデンマーク・コペンハーゲンのレストラン『noma』に余市町にある〈ドメーヌ・タカヒコ〉のピノ・ノワール種のワインを売り込み成功する。2020年にそのことが世間に知れ渡るや良質なワイン産地として、余市町は世界的に認知されるにいたった。販路拡大を目指すのではなく価値を高めるためのブランディングをした結果だ。それにより同町には国内外資本による宿泊施設も増えつつある。

さらにワインを返礼品の主力とする、「ふるさと納税」の額は2017年度の６千万円から2024年度は15億円超へと大幅に増収。その資金の大半を子育て支援に投入し、人口減少を低水準に保つこともできている。

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