Sake brewer Asahi Shuzo becomes New York Yankees sponsor

Asahi Shuzo Co., the brewer of the renowned sake brand Dassai, has signed a two-year deal to become an official sponsor of the New York Yankees from April.

Kazuhiro Sakurai, Asahi Shuzo Co. president, noted that New York keeps evolving by benefiting from being a melting pot of culture and they want to promote Dassai there and to the rest of the world.

As part of the deal, Asahi Shuzo will run an advertisement for Dassai sake on a Yankee Stadium brand billboard this season.

Dassai is also popular In the US. The sake brewery, which is situated in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is set to open in New York this autumn.

From next spring, it hopes to begin selling Dassai Blue sake made there with Yamada Nishiki rice farmed in the United States.

Dassai Blue is named after an old Japanese proverb that translates to "blue dye from the indigo plant is bluer than indigo." As the adage goes, the brewery hopes Dassai Blue will be superior to the original Dassai.