Sake heavyweight Ozeki, based in Japan’s sake mecca of Nada, made a powerful statement earlier this year with the release of a new product: the One Love, One Cup. With a rainbow label and the tagline, “We celebrate diversity”, the product was an expression of support for the LGBTQ community in Japan and abroad.
It’s hard to overstate how unusual–and positive–the move is, especially from a company like Ozeki, which is a household name. Japanese society is generally conservative and this certainly applies to most of the sake industry. Corporate expressions of support for progressive social issues and/or minority groups is quite rare in Japan. If you asked Japanese which corporations they might expect to take a progressive step like this, most would venture more recent titans like Softbank or Uniqlo, not a company founded in 1711 and immersed in tradition.
Then again, over the long arc of history, Ozeki has always been a trailblazer. As we reported in our feature of this dynamic company in Sake Today 17, its development of the single-serving, “one cup” format revolutionized the sake industry and consumer behavior–we believe its legacy in this context has only just begun, as the format catches on overseas as well. Interestingly, the cup debuted during the 1964 Olympics. Now they’ve put a twist on this most iconic of cups to bring it into the 21st century, shortly before the Olympics is scheduled to begin.
June is “Pride Month”, which is celebrated in many countries around the world, including small pockets of Japan, most notably, Osaka. This most friendly of Japanese cities is known to be welcoming of LGBTQ individuals. Thus it’s only appropriate that the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau worked with Ozeki to have the OneCup Rainbow products placed in 20 hotels citywide, either at the bars and restaurants, or in some of the room’s mini-bars.
We salute these moves, and extend our congratulations and support to the LGBTQ community as they continue to live proudly and positively.
