About Us
MIJ TIMES helps English-speaking readers understand what is made in Japan's brewhouses, starting with sake, and choose with confidence. MIJ stands for Made in Japan.
Editorial Guidelines
Our editors choose every bottle and topic independently. No brewery, importer or retailer can pay to be included, to be ranked higher, or to review an article before it runs.
- Specs are sourced. Alcohol, region, polishing ratio and rice variety are printed only when we can confirm them on a brewery or retailer product page. We keep a log of each source. If we cannot confirm a figure, we print a dash.
- No prices on the page. Prices move quickly and differ by country, so we link to the retailer instead.
- No invented quotes. We do not attribute words to people who did not say them. When we quote someone, it comes from an interview we conducted or a published source we link.
- Corrections. When we get something wrong, we fix it and update the date at the top of the article.
Photo Credits
The photographs on this site are used under Creative Commons licences or public-domain dedications. They are shown unmodified, apart from being resized for the web and cropped in place by the page layout. Each credit links to the original page and to the licence.
- “Japanese sake bottles and glasses” by Culture Japon, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Sake bottles” by koutalou, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Sake bottles on display at Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center - Jan 18, 2007” by Yusuke Kawasaki, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Sake bottles on the shelfes” by Dudva, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Sugidama (cedar ball) outside sake brewery, Takayama, May 2017” by Celuici, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “A Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum exhibit” by hslo, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
- “Matsui Sake Brewery's Sake 20211122” by Nisiguti, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Chiyonosono Sake Brewery ac (1)” by Asturio Cantabrio, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Sekinoichi sake breweries shikomikura” by Ty19080914, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Iwamura Sake Brewery 2021-01 ac” by Asturio Cantabrio, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Sake barrel offering at meiji shrine - yoyogi park” by Stéfan Le Dû, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.5
- “Sake Barrel Offerings at Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, Japan, rows” by Stanistani, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “Sake barrels at Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo, Japan” by Jhimross Olinares, via WordPress Photo Directory CC0 1.0
- “Koji Mold Rice” by Zenyrgarden, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Tokkuri sake and takowasa2” by User:Kentin, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “Tokkuri sake2” by User:Kentin, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “Tokkuri sake and takowasa” by User:Kentin, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “Nigori sake” by Luigi Anzivino, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
- “Okada House in Nara - Apr 20, 2019” by shankar s., via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Yoshinogawa Sake Brewery Museum Hisagotei 03” by Norio NAKAYAMA, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
- “Yoshinogawa Sake Brewery Museum Hisagotei 06” by Norio NAKAYAMA, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
- “Shige Sushi and Izakaya - Nov 2019 - Stierch 03” by Missvain, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0
- “Sugidama - Kiku no Tsukasa Sake Brewery - Morioka, Iwate - DSC04109” by Daderot, via Wikimedia Commons CC0 1.0
- “Sakabayashi (Sugidama) at Chiyonosono Sake Brewery (Yamaga, Kumamoto)” by Makoragi, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0
- “Shochu 001” by publicdomainq.net, via Wikimedia Commons CC0 1.0
- “Bottled amami kokuto shochu” by Hhaithait, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Ramen Cooking Tokyo - ramen sushi sake set” by Junichiro Ozaki, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Salmon sushi cut” by Think Draw from Dubai, UAE, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Overflowing sake glass in masu” by Intforce, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Jisaku Kaiseki Ryori 02” by Unnamed Wikimedia Commons contributor, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
- “Working in the Rice Paddies in May” by Angie from Sawara, Chiba-ken, Japan, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Shirokaki uma yukigata on Mount Shirouma 20230423” by Jranar, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0
- “Red Rice Paddy field in Japan 003” by Flickr user gtknj, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
- “Japanese sake glass and flask” by Culture Japon, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Old Mikami House sake masu ac” by Asturio Cantabrio, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Shige Sushi and Izakaya - December 2023 - Sarah Stierch 01” by Missvain, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 4.0
- “Kamisugi Sake Kura ac (3)” by Asturio Cantabrio, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
- “Manzairaku Sake Kura 2021-03 ac” by Asturio Cantabrio, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
Operated by MIJ TIMES.