Regional branding built on local character and charm has proved an effective tool for local revitalization, with success stories found all over the world. Examples from the wine sector alone include France’s Bordeaux region, Napa Valley in California, and the Western Cape in South Africa. Now these illustrious ranks have been joined by a small town in northern Japan: Yoichi, Hokkaido. We paid Yoichi a visit to get the full story.
Domaine Takahiko’s vineyards in Yoichi, Hokkaido, as seen from the Nana-Tsu-Mori Observation Deck.
The island of Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost prefecture, and Yoichi, a town on the island’s west coast, has just 17,000 residents. But right now, this small community is attracting the interest of wine lovers around the world.
The story begins in 2020, when Copenhagen restaurant Noma added a vintage from the Yoichi winery Domaine Takahiko to its wine list, considered the world’s finest. So revered was the Noma seal of approval that this news raced around the wine world in an instant. (Noma closed in 2024.)
Then, in 2025, Yoichi signed a friendship accord with the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin in France’s Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. This made Yoichi the only municipality in the world with which this historic wine-producing area has signed such an agreement, further enhancing the town’s reputation in wine circles.
Christophe Lucand, mayor of Gevrey-Chambertin in France’s Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, and SAITO Keisuke, mayor of Yoichi, at the signing ceremony for the friendship accord between their two municipalities in February 2025.
How has Yoichi become such a prominent presence in the global wine industry? For one thing, the town is the largest fruit producer in Hokkaido. It has produced grapes for direct consumption for many decades, but it also grows high-quality grapes for winemaking, which wineries across Japan have used since the 1980s.
Drawn by the quality of these grapes, winemaker SOGA Takahiko moved to Yoichi in 2010, founded Domaine Takahiko, and set about producing wine so superb that it attracted eager students from far and wide. After learning their craft at Domaine Takahiko, many of these students founded their own wineries in Yoichi as well.
Nor did the town fail to back these early movers. In 2011, applying the provisions of the national Act on Special Districts for Structural Reform, the town loosened restrictions on wine production volume, making it easier for small-scale wineries to enter the market. It also increased subsidies to farmers who produced grape varieties used in wine, such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, encouraging a shift from grapes for direct consumption to grapes for fermentation.
The personal network established by Soga meshed so effectively with the town’s wine-friendly policy that, within the space of a decade, the number of vineyards growing grapes for winemaking rose from 49 to 73, while the number of wineries more than doubled, from 9 to 20.
Further support came with the marketing strategy pursued by current mayor SAITO Keisuke after his election in 2018. “If we are going to remedy overconcentration in urban centers and rebuild regional vitality, local governments need to think about marketing,” says Saito. “I identified wine as a strength for this town and focused all of our efforts on that.”
Recognizing the popularity of New Nordic Cuisine among gourmet diners at the time, Saito approached the top sommelier at Noma, leading exponent of the cuisine, and made the case for Yoichi’s wine. This proved to be the first successful gambit of his wine-centric strategy. Saito then made contact with the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin, which has a similar climate to Yoichi and a common interest in producing Pinot Noir. Winemakers there had expressed concern about the impact of global warming on wine production, and Saito offered to share Yoichi’s approach to the problem. That, in turn, led to the friendship accord.
Saito is confident that this trend will continue. “The next step is to expand our offerings in tourism and gastronomy,” he says. “Yoichi is now known as a source of quality wine, so we’re seeing more luxury hotels and restaurants. I don’t think it will be long before we start attracting visitors and investments from all over the world.”
Saito Keisuke, Mayor of Yoichi: “Yoichi has a cool climate, similar to that of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. It could become a globally renowned wine tourism destination like Oregon.”
Yoichi’s potential is already attracting members of the younger generation. TAKAMATSU Toru is one particularly notable example. In 2009, he became the first Japanese—and, at 24, the youngest person ever—to earn the title of master sommelier, the most demanding, exclusive qualification in the wine world. With this achievement under his belt, Takamatsu could have worked at any famous restaurant on the planet, but he chose wine production instead. Fascinated by the flavor of Domaine Takahiko wines, he is now studying the trade there with the goal of one day opening his own winery in Yoichi.
TAKAMATSU Toru moved to Yoichi to study grape cultivation and winemaking at Domaine Takahiko.
“In Yoichi, you can make wine of high quality on a small scale, which is the winemaking style that interests me,” Takamatsu says. “Also, unlike France, where the calcareous soil yields wines with a high mineral content, Yoichi has high precipitation levels and the soil is rich in organic material, which results in wine with a unique umami reminiscent of Japanese dashi. Given the ongoing Japanese food boom around the world, this distinction is a strength we can use in global competition.”
For towns struggling with falling populations, branding initiatives that leverage regional resources to attract global attention and superior talent could be a fruitful new approach to regional revitalization.
Takamatsu busy with ouillage, the work of topping up barrels of wine to replace volume lost to evaporation. As well as every aspect of winemaking proper, Takamatsu is also involved in handling overseas inquiries and exports.
