News coverage of the gesture highlighted the rice-based spirit at a time when many of Japan’s more than 1,700 sake makers are boosting production and expanding global marketing and as Abe looks to increase sake and rice exports. The push comes simultaneous to a rise in interest in sake outside Japan. “Sales overseas are increasing with the popularity of Japanese food,” says Tomoko Sakaguchi, a spokeswoman for Takara Shuzo, the sake-manufacturing unit of Kyoto-based beverage maker Takara Holdings and the biggest seller of sake outside of Japan.