Skip to content
beaujolais day logo


Beaujolais Day in Japan

Celebrating Beaujolais Day in Japan

Beaujolais Day in Japan is a widely celebrated occasion – with much fanfare made of the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau to arrive in the country each November.  Indeed such is the popularity of Beaujolais Day in the Far East (South Korea is also a large market) that Japan sometimes accounts for half of the entire volume of Beaujolais Nouveau exported (source; Reuters).

Japanese interest in celebrating Beaujolais Day seems to have started in the 1980s – coinciding with an economic boom in the country.  Despite some challenges over the years (including COVID and surges in energy prices – and thus transportation costs) demand for the wine has remained resilient.

Widely acknowledged both in France and abroad as a light, drinkable wine, Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine to be enjoyed with friends and family soon after the harvest.  A section of Japan’s consumers have taken this one step further by indulging in Beaujolais baths – where thermal baths are turned in to thermal wine baths for the day!  If this sounds like an urban myth, just watch the video alongside this article to find out more about Japan’s unusual but undoubtedly invigorating Beaujolais ritual.

Marking The Arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau in Japan

When the arrival of the first Beaujolais Nouveau of the year is marked with a segment on a news channel, the significance of Beaujolais Day is difficult to overstate.

This clip from ANN (All-Nippon News) captures the arrival of the first 2023 Beaujolais Nouveau in Japan.  The Georges Duboeuf shipment (imported by Suntory – a major drinks importer in Japan and operator of some of France’s most prestigious vineyards since the 1980s) is shown being unloaded at the airport and then inspected by customs officials.

The regulations surrounding the release of Beaujolais Nouveau mean the wine cannot be sold to consumers until 00.01am on the 3rd Thursday of November each year however such is the time difference between Japan and France (Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of Paris), Japanese drinkers have the opportunity for one-upmanship on their French counterparts by being the first to taste the wine.