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July 12, 2026
 

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Melinda Joe

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Melinda Joe
Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo. A certified wine and sake professional, she writes about Japanese drinks in her Kanpai Culture column for The Japan Times and blogs at tokyodrinkingglass.blogspot.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 19, 2013
Top chefs explore international accents to sushi
On March 6, in a banquet room of the Hotel The Manhattan in Chiba a group of television camera crews surrounded American chef Jeff Ramsey as he carefully spooned a layer of black rice onto a slice of omelet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 8, 2013
Singapore’s taste for Japanese drinks
On my recent trip to Singapore, Japanese drinks seemed to follow me everywhere. At Jigger & Pony, a stylish new cocktail bar in an old part of Chinatown, the first thing I noticed was the selection of around 20 Suntory and Nikka whiskies that lined the backlit shelves, along with Coedo beer. Perhaps...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 8, 2013
Whisky distillery plays a winning hand
Inside the visitors’ center at Chichibu Distillery, high in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, a hint of sawdust mingled with the aromas of vanilla, dried fruits and honey that filled the air.
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013
Looking to bring Japan’s tastes to new markets through sake
As people across the globe toasted the New Year this month, Japan’s sake brewers had another reason to celebrate. The industry saw modest increases in sake sales, offering a glimmer of hope to producers who have watched consumption decline since the late 1970s. According to the Japanese Sake and Shochu...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 11, 2013
Japan’s latest wine trend is only natural
It’s official: Natural wines are entering mainstream consciousness in Japan. I know this not simply because sections devoted to organic, “bio” (biodynamic), or shizen-ha (natural) wines have become fixtures in many retail shops, or even because sales of natural wines have risen around the world. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 14, 2012
Sake-making mission: the last step
The thermometer inside the brewing facility at Shimazaki Shuzo registered a chilly 8 degrees. Like everyone else who had signed up to take part in the final sake-making session of the Karasuyama Taiken (www.karasuyama-taiken.jp), I was dressed for work — in a thin white jacket that resembled a lab...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 30, 2012
Where Tokyo’s top chefs wine and dine
Chef Shinobu Namae rarely eats at the same restaurant twice. Like a lot of chefs, he spends most of his time in his own kitchen, overseeing lunch and dinner service at L’Effervescence, his Michelin-starred French restaurant in Tokyo’s Aoyama. When he does venture out, he chooses his destinations carefully....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 9, 2012
Japanese wine: not as bad as you think
On the morning of Nov. 3, the line leading to the entrance of Hibiya Park snaked along the sidewalk and coiled around the corner, several meters from the gate. I was there for the Yamanashi Nouveau wine festival but had assumed that the throngs had come for some other purpose. It was a moment of cognitive...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012
Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest
The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children’s scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 12, 2012
Hunting for Tokyo’s real bagel heads
By now, everyone has likely heard of — and been baffled by — the recent “bagel head” phenomenon. Last month, a video clip that showed three people in Tokyo undergoing a beauty treatment that involved saline injections into their foreheads went viral on the Internet. The clip, taken from the program...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 25, 2012
It’s not all about the mid-life crisis
Finding the solution to a difficult problem lies in asking the right questions. On the afternoon of Sept. 1, in a stylish office building in Aoyama, a gathering of Japanese life coaches practiced this Socratic skill in groups of four. It was a role-playing exercise, in which one person played the role...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 21, 2012
Sake tastings mark the arrival of fall
Sake lovers eagerly await the coming of autumn, when spring’s brash young brews begin to mellow and develop complexity. Unsurprisingly, this season is prime time for tastings, and October means sake events all over Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 14, 2012
Sake brewers turn their hand to beer
Taro Ishikawa, president of Ishikawa Shuzo in Fussa City, Tokyo, knows a thing or two about brewing beer. This comes as no surprise: In addition to producing Tamajiman sake, his company has been making Japanese jibīru (craft beer) for 14 years. The Ishikawa family’s history of beer brewing, however,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 10, 2012
Developing a taste for sake cocktails
Despite its funny-sounding name, the Sakenic is a compelling tipple. A fizzy mix of sake, soda and tonic water with an orange twist, it is light and refreshing, with a balance of sweetness and acidity that brings to mind a gin and tonic with less of a bite. The drink is one of the most popular items...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 13, 2012
Sake production, literally from the ground up
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 8, 2012
Wine Challenge brings sake contest to Japan
At 9 a.m. on the morning of May 28, the 40 judges who had been invited to arbitrate in the 2012 International Wine Challenge sake competition convened in the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association building in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district. Conversations in English and Japanese floated around the room...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 11, 2012
How I learned to stop worrying and love the shochu
Nearly 10 years ago, shōchū was all the rage in Japan. In 2004, shipments reached an all-time high, and producers were struggling to keep up with the exploding market. Everyone was drinking it — everyone, it seems, but me.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 11, 2012
Mandarin Oriental stands by Japan produce
Every day, crates from Japan filled with still-wriggling live fish, coral-colored lobes of uni (sea urchin) and seafood fastidiously wrapped in paper smeared with wasabi (to discourage bacteria) arrive at the Michelin-starred French restaurant Amber at Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Executive chef...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 13, 2012
Do girls just wanna have weaker sake?
When it comes to sake, I consider myself something of a traditionalist. If anything, my tastes veer toward the masculine: I tend to favor ricey, muscular styles like kimoto and yamahai over a delicate daiginjō. Funny, then, that I should find myself enjoying a girly new sake at March’s FoodEx exhibition...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 9, 2012
Tohoku’s sake breweries one year on
The narrow, winding road that leads to Senkin Shuzo, a small sake brewery in the tiny town of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, is icy and treacherous. The train lines that used to connect Iwaizumi to Morioka, the nearest major city, were closed after landslides dislodged the tracks last summer. Yuri Yaegashi,...
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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