As Japan shuns stiff drinks, cider aims for a bigger share of the market

I’m at Antenna America, a beer bar and bottle shop in Yokohama’s Kannai neighborhood, acting as a guinea pig for a level one Certified Cider Guide workshop.
Our facilitator is Lee Reeve, Asia’s first Certified Cider Professional (CCP).
“Explaining cider isn’t difficult,” he says. “Basically, saying that it’s ‘wine made from apples’ is an easy way for most people to understand.” It’s hard to argue with that.
The British-born Reeve is the driving force behind inCiderJapan, a cider-focused promotion and marketing consulting company, and publisher of a bilingual magazine dedicated to the cider industry. Through his efforts to promote Japan’s burgeoning cider market, Reeve has forged ties with the American Cider Association, helping bring its educational programs — including today’s workshop — to Japan.
Other participants in the room include food and beverage industry professionals, a hotelier, an importer and a member of a cider promotional group. With next-to-no knowledge of the finer points of alcohol appreciation, I’m definitely the wild card of this group.
My go-to drinks are usually umeshu (plum wine) or sweet cocktails. I’m that odd-duck Kiwi who can’t stomach beer and the Philistine who horrified friends at a Yamanashi Prefecture wine tasting by asking for juice to mix with a white that was far too dry for my tastes.

On the other hand, I might just be the ideal potential consumer for cider, which is often marketed as a drink sitting at the intersection between beer and wine.
Cider also aligns with current consumer trends in Japan. The younger generation is cutting back on alcohol consumption, and manufacturers of canned chūhai and other ready-to-drink cocktails are moving away from products with higher alcohol contents. Cider, with its light and fruity flavors, may appeal to those seeking a comparatively lighter alternative.
Cider-making has been documented as early as the ninth century in Europe and was well-established in most parts of the continent by the 1100s. Closely tied to farming for much of its history, cider was being produced in America by 1629, just nine years after the arrival of the first European colonists. It was, in fact, the most common beverage in colonial America and even given to children in diluted form. Later, cider-making became a practical way to make use of surplus apples, which is how it also eventually gained traction in Japan — albeit only very recently.
Inspired by French ciders he sampled in Europe, sake brewer Isamu Yoshii was the first person in Japan to produce cider as an alcoholic drink in 1954. The drink was known as Asahi Cidre, and to differentiate it from the carbonated soft drink known as “cider” in Japan, the French spelling and pronunciation, “cidre” — “shīdoru” in Japanese — was adopted. However, Japan’s cider industry didn’t really take off until 2018, when apple farmers in Nagano Prefecture turned to the drink as a way to use fallen fruit after typhoons damaged their orchards.

Having launched inCiderJapan around the same time, Reeve was well-placed to help promote the nascent cider industry here. Also, an increasing number of imported ciders helped boost the beverage’s visibility and acceptance in Japan.
Worldwide, cider made a comeback in the 1970s after losing ground to beer, wine and whisky in the 1800s, riding the wave of the craft beer boom. According to the latest industry figures, cider was the world’s second-fastest growing category of alcoholic drinks behind spirits last year. The fastest-growing markets for cider include Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lesotho, Serbia, Kenya, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
While Japan may not be topping the international rankings just yet, the domestic cider market is expected to grow. Market research indicates that cider is appealing to consumers in the 30-50 age range, ticking all the boxes in terms of this cohort’s preferences: easy to drink, low alcohol, relatively healthy — and photogenic to boot.
In Yokohama, Reeve takes us through the basic steps of the cider-making process: milling or grinding the fruit, pressing out the juice, fermentation and maturation, and, finally, packaging.
“An important point to note is that cider isn’t brewed,” he says. “A surprising number of people don’t know this.”
When making beer, the brewing step involves soaking malted grains in hot water to extract their sugars. Apple juice, however, is naturally full of sugar and, unlike beer, the bulk of these sugars are fully fermentable, so the cider-making process is more akin to making wine.
Reeve points out that cider is a versatile drink that complements many foods. Because it has a lower alcohol content than wine and a wider range of tastes — from dry to sweet — than beer, cider pairs with all kinds of food.
“And because ciders can be blended with other fruits and fruit juices, this opens up new combinations of flavor sensations for food pairing,” he adds.

The workshop concludes with a mini cider-tasting session. Reeve hands out sheets for a structured sensory analysis of three ciders, guiding us through the evaluation of the appearance, aroma and palate of each one. This isn’t actually a requirement for level-one certification, but nobody minds the extracurricular activity in the slightest.
Aided by a printed list of possible aromas and flavors, it’s easier than I expect to analyze the ciders. After tentatively circling “guava” on the list for one of the ciders, I’m very pleased when Reeve concurs.
“This one is giving me tropical fruit,” he muses. “Maybe melon or — guava.”
Brian Kowalczyk is the marketing lead for Nagano Trading, the company behind Antenna America that also supplies American products wholesale to other bars. “We started offering American ciders as another option for customers, alongside our craft beers and liquor,” he says. “I have experience in recommending and serving cider to our customers, but I joined today’s class to educate myself on the technical side.”
Reeve doesn’t see a problem with simultaneously promoting imported ciders and domestic products, as the main focus for cider in Japan at this stage is to get people interested. Any avenue for introducing more customers can benefit the cider market as a whole.
Another participant is Aiko Yazawa of the South Nagano Cider Tourism Bureau, which helps connect cideries to other businesses and elevate the drink as a tourism resource. Southern Nagano is one of Japan’s major production areas for cider.
“Until now, my knowledge of cider was mostly about how it is produced, so it was very interesting to learn more about serving cider and food pairings,” she says.

While there are domestic certification courses for the cider industry, Yazawa welcomes the international certification as a way to raise awareness of Japan’s products. Reeve is currently assisting with efforts to offer the CCP program in Japanese.
“Unlike traditional cider-making countries such as the U.K., Spain, France and the U.S., Japan is a relative newcomer,” Reeve says. “Having the CCP program available here helps legitimize Japan as a serious cider-producing country.”
Reeve is also looking forward to the next Japan Cider Cup, the only cider-tasting contest in the country where both the general public and industry professionals do the evaluating. The winning ciders will be announced next year on May 31 at Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe near Hachioji Station.
If you can’t wait til then to start your cider journey, there are several places that can help you wet your whistle with this niche yet growing drink.
Located in Shibuya Ward, Cidernaut is Tokyo’s first cider-focused bar and pub, featuring eight taps with domestic and imported cider. Also in Shibuya, Cider Shack is technically a pub with equal parts beer and cider on offer, including a U.K. brand of the latter that the shop imports itself.
A short train ride south in Yokohama, Antenna America is one of the biggest importers of U.S. craft beer, and they also have several American ciders on the menu that go great with their signature Buffalo wings. For cider and British food pairings, Full Monty British Pub & Cider House is another Yokohama spot with an impressive selection of domestic and imported ciders.
If you’d rather enjoy some cider in the comfort of your own home, Okachimachi’s Wine Styles is a specialty shop near Ueno Station with plenty of ciders by the bottle. For the cider curious outside of Tokyo, there’s also the online Japan Cider Market.