Home > About Shoryudo ambassadors and their activities Ms.Toshie Hiraide
What Is a Shoryudo Ambassador?
In order to increase the number of foreign visitors to the Shoryudo and arouse the interest and curiosity of non-Japanese people regarding the Shoryudo, actress Ryoko Nakano, Hong Kong’s EGL Tours president Man Ying Yuen, and Sake Samurai coordinator Toshie Hiraide have been installed as Shoryudo ambassadors.
Ms. Toshie Hiraide
Ms. Ryoko Nakano
Mr. Yuen, Man Ying
◉Profile of Toshie Hiraide
Sake Samurai Coordinator
Representative director of Co-op SACHI Co., Ltd.
Obtained sommelier certification while working as a flight crew member after joining JAL.
Serves as a director of the Japan Sommelier Association and a member of the Japan Sake Brewery Tourism Promotion Council.
Actively promotes Japanese culture and regions to the world through sake under the slogan “Making Japan a Travel Destination Through Sake”.
Toshie Hiraide, Shoryudo Ambassador
I was hired by JAL as a cabin attendant in 1983, before the company was privatized. In 1992, with about 10 years of work experience behind me and desiring to increase my work specialization, I obtained a sommelier certification. Then, in 2001 after increasing my contacts with people in the overseas wine industry, I tasted some top-quality sake brewed at a certain brewery, and I felt that the sake cup was full of Japan itself — that sake itself was Japan. Inspired by this insight, and having seen the way wine could bring people together, I decided I would spread goodwill around the world through sake, a beverage that represents Japan itself.
As Japan, whose local operations have grown due to domestic demand, becomes an aging society with low birthrates, I think making sake more international in order to help people overseas understand sake, and by extension Japan itself, could produce goodwill toward Japan and increase the number of people who visit the drinking establishments located throughout the country.This has already been accomplished in the wine industry.Promoting sake on the world stage and raising its value is something that’s up to us to do in order to benefit future generations.
Through the Shoryudo Project and the assistance of the Shoryudo Special Sake Tourism Project Promotion Council, which solicits overseas tourists to visit sake breweries in central and northern Japan, I have learned about projects to promote inbound tourism to these nine prefectures and have been incredibly impressed by the organizations and missions that have drawn together people in the public and private sectors. Becoming a Shoryudo ambassador is a greater honor than I deserve, but I shall do my very utmost as someone who has launched a business with the purpose of making Japan a travel destination through sake. When I joined JAL, I was taught by my boss and senior employees that “This company may be a semi-governmental corporation, but more than half of JAL’s crane-and-sun logo represents the Japanese flag. Maintain a spirit of patriotic pride as you fulfill your duties.” Today, promoting sake overseas reminds me of that feeling. I want everyone around the world to expand their horizons by enjoying a cup of sake.