Beer Expo Tokio, which took place from April 9–13 at the Makuhari Exhibition Centre near Tokio, was the very first event of this size to be organised by Japanese craft breweries. Beer Expo combined a beer trade fair, a conference and Japanese beer. Participants had the chance to taste beers from more than 200 Japanese breweries and at the same time take part in several dozen professional seminars.

The Czech Republic’s booth dominated among the exhibitors, which was organised by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tokyo with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. Bohemia Hop, together with its Japanese partner, E.A.T., introduced Czech hop varieties to Japanese brewers, accompanied by the opportunity to taste Czech beers using the Sládek, Premiant, Agnus, Kazbek, Saaz Shine, Saaz Comfort and of course Saaz (Žatecký poloraný červeňák) varieties.

As part of the well-attended conference section, Zdeněk Rosa from Bohemia Hop presented news from Czech hop growing, and Luc Lafontaine from the Godspeed brewery supplemented the lecture with practical experiences.

In addition to representatives of Japanese craft breweries, the conference and exhibition were also attended by a large number of employees of all major Japanese breweries (Asahi, Kirin, Suntory and Sapporo), who had another opportunity to find out more information about the possibilities of using Czech hop varieties.

Japanese brewers tasted Plzeňský Prazdroj, Budějovický Budvar and also other Czech beers supplied by Unětický brewery, Zichovec brewery, Máša brewery, Kutná Hora brewery, Loď brewery, Vinohradský brewery, Sv. Norbert brewery, Svijany or Sibeeria.

During the fair, Bohemia Hop also visited the Harvest Moon brewery with brewer Tomoko Sonoda, who was currently brewing her Pilsner from Saaz hops, which won the World Beer Cup in the USA in 2022.