Wine Tourism Yamanashi: November 7-8

This episode takes you to the "Wine Land", Yamanashi, northwest of Mt. Fuji. It's long known for grapes and nowadays gaining popularity for a land of superb wine.

Here's a man, Takayuki Oki by name, who engineered the entire project of Wine Tourism. Participants schedule their own tours, walk about visiting wineries, tasting their own favorite wines. Twice as many join the tours as in 2008 when it started. Its economic impact on local industrial life is remarkable.

Mr. Oki tells in the first person his account of how wine has come to lead Yamanashi in tourism:

"It started not just to help out wineries. We thought of how the local community can survive. A  local market of our own is what we need. What else but wine, we thought.

"15 years ago, when I opened an eating place in Kofu, there wasn't a soul drinking Kofu wine. Why? People used to think Kofu wine is for a souvenir for tourists, not anything you drink and enjoy at home. I gave it a try; I served Kofu wine at my place.

"I made out a brochure to wipe out the notion 'Kofu wine is cheap and indifferent'. I made out a winery map in 2007 and started a 'Wine Bar' and mobilized wine farmers to come join in numbers to play up an atmosphere of Kofu wine being a 'booming product'. "

Mr. Oki's efforts paid off. The 1st Wine Tourism in 2008 attracted 1,280 visitors at 30 local wineries and in 2011 way over 2,000.  

Prof. Shigeyoshi Sato of Otsuki Junior College states a single Wine Tourism brings home a production-inducing effect worth 74 million yen or a gross total of over 3 billion yen per year, says Mr. Oki.

"Wine is a weapon for local industries. Wine Tourism is a tool to bring life to our community", comments Mr. Oki.

News Source: Nikkei Shimbun