The use of a variety of unique sugars by Japan’s cooks as an essential seasoning in all kinds of savory dishes is one of their key ways of making foods better tasting and dishes more satisfying, and, perhaps surprisingly, it also leads to healthier eating.

The first modern brewer in Japan of rich, double-brewed and aged kijoshu sake, Enoki Shuzo continues to lead a growing trend for this rare category of sake through its many delicious innovations.

Fujii Shuzo’s “Ryusei” brand ginjo and dai-ginjo sake have been winning prestigious awards for over one-hundred years because their uniquely complex, acidic flavor profiles pair well with all foods and cuisines and make them delicious to drink on any occasion.

“Matsufuji” is a uniquely ethereally rich, flavorful, refined style of awamori liquor made by the Sakiyama family according to the traditional brewing practices of the Ryukyu kingdom that once ruled the Okinawan Islands as an independent nation.

Tokuhige Togo has created one of the purest and most nutritious, mineral-laden sea salts found in Okinawa by “brewing” the sea salt he makes from the waters off Ishigaki Island in jars filled with brine for eight years.

By harvesting their famous lemons early, when they are still green, Hiroshima’s lemon farmers have created a uniquely-flavored new type of citrus, which is helping their small businesses and, in turn, the local food makers who have been inspired to create new foods and dishes with them.

On a rugged wind-swept peninsula in the Sea of Japan in northern Shimane prefecture known as the Land of the Gods, septuagenarian Isamu Abe is making mild-tasting, nutritious, and very dry, fine grain seaweed salts that are as excellent for baking and making desserts as they are as table salts.

As much as sake is a delight to drink, it is even more perfect as an ingredient in cooking.

By sustainably farming a sencha green tea with a naturally unique flavor and serving it up at Tea Stand Gen, Genki Takahashi is reaffirming the important cultural role of green tea in Japan as a bond with nature and between people in addition to providing a soothing and healthy cup of tea.

An aromatic, beautiful, and delicious full-bodied alcohol made from rice, artisanal hon-mirin has an essential role in the pantheon of fermented Japanese seasonings by virtue of its flavor-extending umami and complex sweet-savory flavors created by the Maillard reaction. It is also a delicious and healthy liquor to drink.

Trained by their blind grandfather to work by hand as much as by eye, the brothers Ryuhei and Yohei are making intensely rich, nutritious, and robust koji that cooks can use to easily make delicious miso and other fermented foods at home.

At Torii Sauce, third generation artisanal sauce maker Daishi Torii is making a family of Japanese brown sauces that are not only essential to the Japanese pantry but, in many respects, are more delicious and useful in all kinds of cuisines than equivalent Western and Asian brown sauces.

Iio Jozo Brewery’s unique range of beautifully-flavored, all-natural, umami-enriched rice vinegars has redefined rice vinegar’s role in the modern Japanese pantry, becoming a key seasoning used by cooks to create Japan’s light, yet rich tasting cuisine.

In the birthplace of of the refined ginjo style of sake, Miho Imada is carrying on a tradition of brewing beautifully fragrant and richly-flavored ginjo sake that are to be enjoyed as one of life’s daily pleasures.

By making all grass-fed, artisanal cow and goat cheeses in the highlands of western Japan, Mirasaka Fromage is adding deliciously light and uniquely-flavored cheeses to Japan’s pantry of fermented foods and is also helping to preserve the area's rural way of life by adhering to the ancient, sustainable, and ethical way of using the land by mountain grazing its dairy animals.

Japan's citrus farmers, cooks, and craft food makers are renewing citrus’ role as one of Japan's most important foods and seasonings by introducing new types of fruit, expanding citrus’ use in cooking and eating, and creating a seemingly endless array of delicious and ingenious citrus-based food products.

There is no food that better reflects the dynamism of Japan's craft food revival than sea salt.