Region & History

Sapporo Beer is considered Japan's oldest beer brand, and it began with a government mandate. In 1869, the northern island of Ezo was renamed Hokkaido, and the government established the Kaitakushi. This was a development agency tasked with opening up the sparsely populated north through agriculture, mining, and new towns.

Among the plans was a brewery. Agency chief Kuroda Kiyotaka ordered that barley and hops be grown locally for it. As an expert, they brought in Nakagawa Seibei, who had learned brewing in Germany.

Nakagawa knew that bottom-fermented beer, brewed German-style, needs cool fermentation and storage, which requires plenty of ice in summer. An official named Murahashi Hisanari petitioned the government to build the brewery in cold Hokkaido rather than the milder south. The request was granted. On September 23, 1876, the Kaitakushi Brewery opened in Sapporo.

The first cold-brewed beer went on sale in Tokyo in September 1877. The state-run brewery later passed into private hands and today belongs to Sapporo Holdings. The Sapporo name carries no EU-style protected designation of origin — it's simply a trademark.

Alongside the big name, small breweries emerged only much later. Since Japan lowered the minimum volume required for a brewing license in 1994, operations in Otaru, Hakodate, and Abashiri have been brewing their own styles, often based on German models. What began as a government operation in 1876 has grown into a beer region with many voices, though Sapporo remains the best-known name.