Sakai knives a cut above for foreign visitors to Japan

The global popularity of blades forged in the western Japan city of Sakai is on the rise, with foreign tourists helping to boost sales of the city's native brand that is widely regarded as one of the country's top three traditional knives.The Sakai Traditional Crafts Museum saw annual sales of its blades surpass 100 million yen ($660,000) for the first time in fiscal 2023 and expects another record this fiscal year, with foreign tourists from the United States, France and others making up half of the sales.Sakai blades date back to Japan's Kofun period (from the third to seventh century), w…READ FULL ARTICLE