DASSAI will be holding 1,000 DASSAI events nationwide over the next year. These events will range from large-scale gatherings like the ones we hold in Tokyo and Kyoto with over 300 people, to smaller, more intimate gatherings of about 10 people at restaurants. Our goal is to hold a total of 1,000 events over the year.

Why are we doing this? Because we want more and more people to learn about DASSAI.

I'll give you a brief update on DASSAI's current situation. After raising our prices in May, our sales have been struggling. While our total sales, both domestic and overseas, have slightly exceeded the previous year, the results are not satisfactory. Domestic sales, in particular, have been weak. As someone who has always said that we don't chase sales but that poor sales results indicate a problem with the sake brewery, I must humbly admit that this is a situation that calls for reflection.

The truth is, we decided to raise prices this time in order to create a more sustainable business model for everyone involved in DASSAI, including Yamada Nishiki rice farmers. However, our explanation was self-serving and inadequate. Recently, the sake industry has been seeing a trend of price increases due to rising material costs, and we followed suit without providing a sufficient explanation. No wonder our customers were put off.

Initially, we didn't realize this, so we held a meeting within the company to try to figure out what was going on. As the chairman, I put my own ignorance aside and asked questions like: "Why now? Why are sales declining after the price increase? What do the executives think?" Everyone looked gloomy, but it's understandable. We're not doing this for fun.

From these several dark and painful meetings, one thing became clear: we had been complacently assuming that our customers understood DASSAI, but in reality, DASSAI was just one small piece of the vast amount of information that our customers are bombarded with every day.

If that's the case, then we need to redouble our efforts to communicate DASSAI's message. But how? That's when we came up with the idea of holding 1,000 events. Through these events, we can directly communicate our thoughts and feelings to our customers. Holding 1,000 events in a year is impossible for just the president, chairman, and sales members, so we concluded that we would have to ask our manufacturing staff to help out.

With that in mind, I decided to explain to the manufacturing staff what I wanted them to talk about, as they might feel uneasy about directly explaining things to customers and might be selected or volunteer to participate in these 1,000 events.

I asked manufacturing director to "gather motivated manufacturing members" and told him, "We won't be using PowerPoint or anything like that. This isn't about trying to impress everyone, but about reaffirming important things to everyone, so please just bring writing instruments and notepads. Just write down what you find meaningful." I had expected around 20-30 people, but when I went to the 12th-floor conference room that day, it was overflowing with well over 100 members. He told me that so many people had said, "I want to go too," that this was the result. I was a little surprised, and even though I see these members every day at work, I felt strangely nervous and spoke for 30 minutes.

I talked about how our current sales were not good, how the chairman and president, including myself, had made some wrong judgments, and how we needed everyone's help. I also asked them to help with the events. I told them to talk about what DASSAI has valued. No fancy sales pitches were necessary.

In other words, I told them to say things like, "All of DASSAI's efforts are directed towards providing our customers with the most delicious sake possible," "Excellent raw materials, such as Yamada Nishiki rice, are essential for making delicious sake, and that's why DASSAI has always valued the farmers who cultivate this rice," "We don't just want to sell as much as possible, which is why we haven't sold to convenience stores or supermarkets, which are considered successful in today's market," and "We've only partnered with stores that value the DASSAI brand and quality. We've never been driven by the idea that selling more is better. Instead, our goal has always been to provide our customers with the most delicious sake possible."

The next day, early in the morning, I left Yamaguchi to New York, but as I was waiting to board my flight at Haneda Airport, I realized that there was something important that I hadn't mentioned. It was the most important thing. I should have said, "Above all, what I want you to talk about with confidence is what you think, what you aim for, and what you do in your respective manufacturing workplaces." That's the most important thing. "What you're doing is something that you can talk about with confidence when compared to the general work practices in the sake industry. Just by talking about what you're doing, you can greatly impress customers. That's what DASSAI is doing. That's what you're doing." I hadn't realized that I hadn't said that.

I called sales director from the waiting room and asked him to convey this message as a message from the chairman at the morning meeting. However, it's truly a blessing to be making DASSAI surrounded by such passionate employees. I can't thank them enough.

So, we're going to be holding 1,000 DASSAI events, so if there are any stores that would like to host one, please let us know. We'll go anywhere in the world.