Probably non-Japanese thinks sake is the traditional alcohol in Japan. Yes, it is true but there is another alcohol which is traditional one and drunk more in Kyushu island than sake.
Shochu is not like fermented alcohol as like sake, it is distilled one. Sake is made from rice but shochu uses various types of crops including rice. Major ingredients are rice, sweet potato and wheat.
1.38 liters per person of sake was drunk by citizen of Kagoshima prefecture in 2016 but 24.45 liters per person of shochu was drunk by the citizen. The average consumption of sake per person in whole Japan was 5.6 liters and the average consumption of shochu per person was 8.16 liters. This statistics are quite a surprise for Japanese too. I assume the most of the Japanese except those living in Kyushu think that sake is drunk more than shochu.
If you compare the consumption by citizen in Tokyo, shochu overwhelms sake by 9.71 liters to 6.6 liters too. Statistic of Osaka is 6.64/4.99.
However, acknowledge of shochu by non-Japanese is low if you compare with sake or whisky. Therefore, if you are in Japan, especially in Kyushu, you must enjoy drinking shochu!
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