Wine Tourism Could Breathe Life Back Into Japan’s Disaster Zone
Locals hope wine revives tourism, broader economy in Tohoku, Japan
If recreating the Napa Valley isn’t hard enough, try doing it in a part of Japan that’s been rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, and spurned because of a nuclear disaster.
Akiu Winery, near Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture that’s about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Tokyo, isn’t deterred by those challenges. Opened in December with financial help from the Mitsubishi Corp. Disaster Relief Foundation, it aims to pioneer a wine tourism-led revival in Japan’s northeast, which was already one of the country’s most economically depressed regions even before catastrophe struck.