Bank group buys booze to help quake-hit brewery (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Ichinokura Co.'s sake (Provided by Sakura Card Co.)

The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. group is buying sake made by a brewery in Miyagi Prefecture to help it rebuild after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Sakura Card Co., Sumitomo Mitsui's credit card arm, has bought 1,000 bottles of sake worth 3 million yen ($37,100) from Ichinokura Co. in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

It will be giving the sake to its credit card users from June 1.

Ichinokura's brewery and about 17,000 bottles of its sake were damaged in the March 11 disaster. Sales in Miyagi Prefecture, which account for half of its sales, have dropped.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201105300193.html