Marie Nagata

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Co-host

Marie is a budding sake specialist based in Tokyo. She writes, talks, and sips all in the name of promoting sake, and wears many hats as the owner of Twenty x Twenty, a marketing agency specialized in sake-related business.

She cut her teeth in Marketing as a Digital Marketing Strategist, where she helped enterprise clients connect with an audience through digital media. Fast-paced, competitive, and often glamorous work style was exciting — until trying to always be “new” in the market kind of got old. She realized she’s had enough. That’s when she decided to take a leap of faith in pursuing her passion for sake.

A few weeks later Marie packed her two bags and landed in the scenic lakeside of Queenstown, New Zealand. There, she joins her friend and mentor Dave Joll in his boutique brewery Zenkuro, getting hands-on and elbows-deep experience in sake brewing.

A string of serendipitous professional encounters led her back to Tokyo, where she now combines her background in marketing with her love for sake. She pens for SAKETIMES International as their Content Director, holds lectures, and is making a foray into the world of podcasts as a new addition to the cast of Sake On Air.

When she’s not trying out new brews, you can find her on a beach, sketching a design for her dream mobile home, or training for her first marathon — mentally, mostly.