The words on a sake label have legal meanings set by Japan's National Tax Agency. This guide explains which items must appear, which are optional, and when terms such as junmai, ginjo, nama or ki-ippon may be used.
Every bottle must show its ingredients, a storage precaution if the sake was never heat-treated, the country of origin if imported, and a statement if foreign sake was blended in; the brewer's name and address, volume, category (seishu, 清酒) and alcohol content are also compulsory. The table below summarizes the National Tax Agency's labeling standard for sake and its related guidance on compulsory label items.
| Item | What you will see | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients 原材料名 (genzairyo-mei) | 原材料名 米、米こうじ、醸造アルコール | All ingredients except water, listed in descending order by amount used. For sake that uses a special designation, the polishing ratio must be shown close to the ingredients. |
| Storage / drinking precaution 保存又は飲用上の注意事項 | 要冷蔵 (refrigerate) | Required for sake shipped from the brewery with no heat treatment after production. |
| Country of origin 原産国名 | 原産国 (country) | Required for imported sake. |
| Foreign sake blended in 外国産清酒を使用したものの表示 | ○○産清酒5％使用 | When domestic and foreign sake are blended, the country of origin and the share of foreign sake are shown. The share may be given in a 10% range. |
| Producer name and brewery address 製造者・製造場の所在地 | 製造者 ○○酒造 | The address may be replaced by a registered symbol. |
| Content volume 内容量 | 内容量 720ml | The volume filled into the container, written after the word 内容量. |
| Category 品目 | 清酒 (seishu) | Only sake made with domestic rice and brewed in Japan may be labeled 日本酒 (Nihonshu). |
| Alcohol content アルコール分 | アルコール分 15度 | For sake, a figure within ±1 degree is allowed, in whole degrees or 0.5-degree steps. |
These items must in principle be printed in Japanese characters of 8 points or larger (6 points or larger on containers of 200 ml or less). Note that the production date used to be required but became optional on January 1, 2023, so a bottle without one is no longer unusual.
These words are "special designations" (tokutei meisho, 特定名称) that may be printed only when the sake meets the legal requirements for ingredients, polishing ratio and koji-rice ratio, and using them is optional for the brewer. The 8 designations are listed below; for taste differences, see our Sake Types guide.
| Designation | Ingredients | Polishing ratio | Koji rice | Flavor requirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ginjo 吟醸酒 | Rice, rice koji, brewer's alcohol | 60% or less | 15% or more | Ginjo-zukuri method; good characteristic flavor and color |
| Daiginjo 大吟醸酒 | Rice, rice koji, brewer's alcohol | 50% or less | 15% or more | Ginjo-zukuri method; particularly good flavor and color |
| Junmai 純米酒 | Rice, rice koji | No requirement | 15% or more | Good flavor and color |
| Junmai Ginjo 純米吟醸酒 | Rice, rice koji | 60% or less | 15% or more | Ginjo-zukuri method; good flavor and color |
| Junmai Daiginjo 純米大吟醸酒 | Rice, rice koji | 50% or less | 15% or more | Ginjo-zukuri method; particularly good flavor and color |
| Tokubetsu Junmai 特別純米酒 | Rice, rice koji | 60% or less, or a special production method (must be explained on the label) | 15% or more | Particularly good flavor and color |
| Honjozo 本醸造酒 | Rice, rice koji, brewer's alcohol | 70% or less | 15% or more | Good flavor and color |
| Tokubetsu Honjozo 特別本醸造酒 | Rice, rice koji, brewer's alcohol | 60% or less, or a special production method (must be explained on the label) | 15% or more | Particularly good flavor and color |
Where brewer's alcohol is used, its weight (converted to 95% alcohol) may not exceed 10% of the weight of the polished rice. For tokubetsu junmai and tokubetsu honjozo, the label must explain why the sake is "particularly good" using objective facts such as ingredients or method; if the polishing ratio is the explanation, it must be 60% or less. The word tokubetsu (特別, "special") may be used only for these two designations.
Sake that does not meet these requirements may not use look-alike terms. For example, a phrase like "米だけの酒" (rice-only sake) is allowed only when a clear explanation that the product is not a special-designation sake is printed next to it.
Seimai-buai (精米歩合) is the weight of polished rice as a percentage of brown rice, so a smaller number means more of the outer layer was milled away: 60% means 40% was removed. According to the National Tax Agency, rice eaten at home is polished to about 92%, while sake rice is often polished to 75% or less.
Terms such as the rice variety, nama, nama-chozo, genshu, ki-ippon and taru-zake are optional, and may be used only when the sake meets the condition set for each one in the labeling standard.
| Label term | Condition for use |
|---|---|
| Rice variety 原料米の品種名 (e.g. 山田錦100%) | May be shown when that variety makes up more than 50% of the rice used, together with its usage ratio. The ratio is given in 1% units or 5% steps (fractions dropped); 5% steps may be used only when the ratio exceeds 50%. |
| Place of production 清酒の産地名 | Allowed only if all of the sake was brewed (including water adjustment) in that place. Blends of sake from different places cannot carry a place name. |
| Storage years 貯蔵年数 | Shown in whole years with fractions dropped; for blends of different ages, the shortest age is used. |
| Genshu 原酒 | Sake to which no water has been added after production. Water adjustment of less than 1% alcohol is acceptable. |
| Nama-zake 生酒 | Sake that has received no heat treatment at all after production. |
| Nama-chozo-shu 生貯蔵酒 | Sake stored without heat treatment and heat-treated when shipped from the brewery. |
| Ki-ippon 生一本 | Junmai sake brewed at a single brewery only. |
| Taru-zake 樽酒 | Sake stored in a wooden barrel and carrying the aroma of the wood. It does not matter whether it is in a wooden container at the point of sale. |
| Superlatives such as "gokujo", "yuryo", "kokyu" 極上・優良・高級 | Allowed when a producer has several sakes of the same type or brand and can objectively explain, through ingredients or method, that one is particularly good. They rank a brewer's own products and cannot be used to compare with other companies, nor combined with a special designation. |
| Production date 製造時期 | The time the sake was filled into the container and sealed for sale, shown after wording that identifies it as the production date. |
Since January 1, 2023, combined terms such as 生原酒 (nama-genshu) and 生貯蔵原酒 are also permitted. Some wording is prohibited: terms meaning the very top such as 最高 (best), 第一 (number one) or 代表 (representative); wording that falsely suggests an award at a competition; and wording that falsely suggests endorsement by a government agency.
Nihonshu-do (日本酒度, sake meter value) and acidity (酸度, sando) are not in the National Tax Agency's lists of required or optional label items for sake, although some bottles print them as a guide to taste.
The National Research Institute of Brewing describes nihonshu-do as a guide to sweetness versus dryness: the higher the number, the drier the sake, and the lower, the sweeter. A label saying +8 suggests a dry sake and one saying -5 suggests a sweet sake. More sugar pushes the number down, less sugar pushes it up. But how sweet or dry a sake tastes also depends on factors other than sugar, and at the same nihonshu-do a sake with more acidity tastes drier. Read the number together with acidity, polishing ratio and designation rather than on its own.
The geographical indication (GI) "Nihonshu" (日本酒) guarantees that the sake was made in Japan from domestically grown rice for both the rice and the rice koji; it was designated by the Commissioner of the National Tax Agency on December 25, 2015. Sake made with foreign rice, or made outside Japan, cannot be labeled Nihonshu. The agency's production standard also notes that rice trading and origin information must be passed on from rice producers to sake producers, so the use of domestic rice can be confirmed.
Regional GIs name a specific place. The agency's list of sake GIs includes Hakusan (Hakusan City, Ishikawa; designated December 22, 2005), Nada-Gogo (parts of Hyogo; June 28, 2018) and Niigata (the whole prefecture; February 7, 2022), among many others. A regional GI name may not be used for sake made outside that area or for sake that does not meet its production standard.
When a regional GI appears on a container, the standard requires the words 地理的表示, "Geographical Indication" or "GI" to be used with the name in at least one place (with exceptions such as GIs designated less than two years earlier). Those words may not be used on products that do not use a GI. For Nihonshu, the agency's list notes that this wording requirement does not apply.
Sources：National Tax Agency (Japan): 清酒の製法品質表示基準を定める件, National Tax Agency: 「清酒の製法品質表示基準」の概要, National Tax Agency: 第86条の6 酒類の表示の基準, National Tax Agency: 酒類の表示に関する説明事項（各品目共通）, National Tax Agency: 酒類の地理的表示一覧, National Tax Agency: 別紙1 地理的表示「日本酒」生産基準, National Tax Agency: 酒類の地理的表示に関する表示基準を定める件, National Research Institute of Brewing: 酒販サポートニュース16