富久娘、「純米酒」自主回収

Recently the Yomiuri News on-line reported the following:

富久娘、「純米酒」に醸造アルコール…自主回収

神戸市灘区の酒造会社「富久娘酒造」は１１日、「純米酒」に醸造アルコールを混ぜたり、規格外の酒米を使った安い酒に「純米酒」などのラベルを貼ったりするなど、国税庁の基準に違反する日本酒を販売していたことを明らかにした。

　同社は該当する３８銘柄の自主回収を始めた。今年１月〜１０月末に一升瓶換算で約２５万本を販売したという。

　同社によると、不正表示は１０月下旬、大阪国税局の指摘で発覚。国税庁の基準では純米酒の原料は米と米こうじだけだが、醸造アルコールを加えたものがあった。また、品質の劣る規格外の米を使った酒に「吟醸酒」「純米酒」「本醸造酒」といった高級酒のラベルを貼って販売していた。

　同社が原料を記した書類などを調べたところ、少なくとも４〜５年前から不正表示は始まっていたとみられるといい、詳しい時期を調べている。読売新聞の取材に、小島久佳社長は「結果としてお客様をだましたことになった。原因究明を徹底し、再発防止に努めたい」と話した。

（2013年11月11日23時59分 読売新聞）

(試譯文)

On the 11^th the National Tax Agency showed that the sake which was below the standard was sold by the brewing company "Oenon Holdings, Inc " of Nada-district, Kobe-city; it mixed brewing alcohol with "junmai-shu", or sticking labels such as "junmai-shu" on the cheap alcohol that used substandard brewing rice to prepare.

The company began the voluntary recall of 38 applicable brands. By 1-litre bottle conversion, it was said that about 250,000 bottles were sold from the end of January up to October this year.

According to the company, indications of mislabeling were discovered in the Osaka Regional Taxation Bureaus in late October. Based on the standard of the National Tax Agency, for junmai-shu, the materials used to prepare should be rice and rice koji only; but some had added in with brewing alcohol. Moreover, the labels of luxury liquor, such as “ginjo-shu”, “junmai-shu”, and “honjozo-shu” were stuck to alcohol prepared with substandard rice and were inferior in quality, and sold.

When looking at the company’s documents etc. in which raw materials were recorded, it might be concluded that the mis-labeling had begun at least 4-5 years earlier, and the detailed timing was still being investigated. Speaking to the news coverage of Yomiuri Shimbun, President Hisayoshi Kojima was saying that “it means that we had deceived the customers as a result. I would like to find out the complete cause and to strive to prevent future recurrence".

I always think that honesty is an important asset in doing business.