Sapporo Beer

Sapporo beers date back to 1876, with the founding of the Kaitakushi Brewery, the first Bavarian-style brewing company in Japan.

During the early Meiji Period, wild hops were discovered on Hokkaido by pioneers who had been sent to the island in an effort to develop the beer industry. It was decided that beer would be brewed in Sapporo.

Seibei Nakagawa, who had recently returned from Germany having earned a Beer Brewery Engineering License, was chosen to oversee the construction of a beer factory in August 1875. One year later, on September 23, 1876, the first authentic Bavarian-style beer factory, Kaitakushi Brewery, was opened in Japan.

The beer, Sapporo Lager Beer, was born under Pioneers' symbol, the North Star.

In 1886, the Sapporo Brewery Factory was sold to a private trading company named the Okura Trading Company (Kihachiro Okura). One year later, a group of entrepreneurs led by Eiichi Shibusawa and Kihachiro Okura bought the factory from the Okura Trading Company, and created the Sapporo Beer Company.

This inaugurated one of the most notable eras in the history of Japanese beer brewing: in 1887, the Japan Beer Company (now named Sapporo Beer Co., Ltd.) was established, and began selling Yebisu Beer; in 1888, the Japan Brewery introduced Kirin Beer.

Sapporo

 Odori Park

Sapporo ("important river flowing through a plain" in Ainu language) is the capital of Hokkaido and Japan's fifth largest city. Sapporo is also one of the nation's youngest major cities. In 1857, the city's population stood at just seven people.

In the beginning of the Meiji Period, when the development of Hokkaido was started on a large scale, Sapporo was chosen as the island's administrative center and enlarged according to the advice of foreign specialists. Consequently, Sapporo was built based on a North American style rectangular street system.