Hidetoshi Nakata is a former Japanese professional footballer.
After retiring in 2006, he spent over 7 years travelling throughout Japan. Well informed of Japan’s culture, customs, crafts and agriculture, including sake breweries. Sake, and sake brewing, became of particular interest to Nakata, and his desire to understand more about this craft saw him visit over 300 sake breweries around Japan. In 2014, Nakata became a certified "Master of Sake". In 2015, he established JAPAN CRAFT SAKE COMPANY in an effort to promote awareness of Japanese sake, culture and craftsmanship around the world. Since then, he has launched his own bespoke sake, "N", and has created the "Sakenomy", sake app, which he designed to help the world’s sake drinkers discover more about sake. As an active philanthropist and humanitarian, Nakata continually develops and provides opportunities to promote Japan’s unique culture, crafts and talented artisans to the world.