Japanese Whisky: How a Small Island Nation Became the World’s Best Distiller

Japanese Whisky: How a Small Island Nation Became the World’s Best Distiller

By Yoshi | Japan Unveiled

In 2015, a bottle of Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 received a score of 97.5 points from Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible and was named World Whisky of the Year — the first time a Japanese whisky had received that recognition in Murray’s influential annual publication.

The international response was, in several respects, extraordinary.

Whisky enthusiasts who had not previously encountered Japanese whisky discovered it with the specific intensity of people who feel they have been missing something important. The bottles that had been sitting on Japanese supermarket shelves at modest prices — the Yamazaki 12 Year, the Hibiki Harmony, the Nikka From the Barrel — suddenly had waiting lists. Within months, the supply of aged Japanese whisky available for retail purchase had been significantly depleted by a surge of demand that the distilleries, whose whisky inventory is measured in decades, could not quickly replenish.

The shortage was real. It is, in some categories, still real. The best aged Japanese single malts are genuinely difficult to find at retail, genuinely expensive, and genuinely worth the difficulty and the expense for the people who care about whisky.

But I want to tell a story that is more interesting than the supply-and-demand story, and more interesting than the international awards story. I want to tell you how a country that had no whisky distilling tradition as recently as 1923 — a country that did not produce, drink, or understand whisky in any significant way — became, within a century, one of the three or four places on earth where whisky is made at the highest international level.

The story is about borrowing and learning and adapting and making something new from a tradition that was entirely foreign. It is, in this sense, very Japanese.

The Beginning: Masataka Taketsuru and the Man Who Went to Scotland

The history of Japanese whisky begins with one person making one decision: to go to Scotland and learn.

Masataka Taketsuru was born in 1894 in Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture, to a family that had produced sake for generations. He was educated as a chemist and went to work for a Osaka trading company that wanted to enter the whisky business. In 1918, the company sent him to Scotland to study whisky production.

What Taketsuru did in Scotland was not a brief industry reconnaissance. He enrolled at the University of Glasgow to study organic chemistry, then arranged apprenticeships at several Scottish distilleries — including Longmorn Distillery in the Speyside region and Bo’ness cooperage — to learn the practical skills of whisky production: mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, blending. He learned from people who had been making whisky for generations, in the specific tradition of Scotch whisky, in the specific geography and climate that had shaped that tradition.

He also, while in Scotland, married Rita Cowan, the daughter of a Scottish doctor — a marriage that was both personally significant and professionally important. Rita’s family connections gave Taketsuru access to distillery knowledge and hospitality that a foreign student might not otherwise have received. The Taketsuru story — the young Japanese chemist and the Scottish woman who married him and followed him back to Japan — is one of the great cross-cultural love stories of twentieth-century industrial history.

Taketsuru returned to Japan in 1920 with detailed notebooks — technical records of what he had observed and learned in Scotland, documented in the specific detail of a trained chemist who understood what he was looking at. These notebooks are now considered historical documents of significant importance in the history of Japanese whisky. They represent the specific knowledge transfer — from the Scottish distilling tradition to the Japanese — that made Japanese whisky possible.

The Founding of the Industry: Yamazaki and Nikka

The two companies that founded the Japanese whisky industry — and that still produce the most internationally recognised Japanese whiskies — were established within a decade of Taketsuru’s return.

Suntory and Yamazaki Distillery — In 1923, the entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii established the first malt whisky distillery in Japan in Yamazaki, a small town between Kyoto and Osaka where the Katsura, Uji, and Kizu rivers meet, producing a specific humidity and temperature range that Torii judged suitable for whisky maturation. Torii hired Taketsuru to run the distillery — combining his own commercial vision with Taketsuru’s technical expertise.

The Yamazaki distillery produced Japan’s first commercially sold whisky in 1929 — Shirofuda (“White Label”), which was received with limited enthusiasm by a Japanese drinking public that was not yet familiar with whisky’s specific flavours. The early decades were difficult: whisky was a foreign flavour in a country with no whisky drinking tradition, and building a market for a product that took at least twelve years to mature was a long-term investment in the most literal sense.

Taketsuru and Torii had different visions for what Japanese whisky should be. Torii believed that Japanese whisky should be adapted to Japanese tastes — lighter, more approachable, more accommodating of the specific flavour preferences of Japanese consumers. Taketsuru believed that the only whisky worth making was whisky as close as possible to the Scottish original — that compromising the process in service of accessibility was compromising the product.

Nikka and Yoichi Distillery — In 1934, Taketsuru left Suntory and established his own company — Nikka Whisky Distilling — and his own distillery in Yoichi, Hokkaido. The site of Yoichi was chosen with specific intent: the cool, humid climate, the proximity to the sea, and the access to local peat resources made it the Japanese location most similar to the Scottish Highlands environments where Taketsuru had trained.

Yoichi distillery uses a production method — direct coal-fired pot stills — that has been discontinued at most Scottish distilleries but that Taketsuru insisted on maintaining because of the specific quality of the spirit it produces. The directness of the coal fire produces a heavier, more robust spirit than the indirect heating used at most modern distilleries. It also requires significantly more attention and skill from the still operators. Nikka has maintained this method at Yoichi because the method produces the specific whisky that the distillery is known for.

What Makes Japanese Whisky Japanese

This is the question that the international whisky community has been debating with increasing seriousness since the global attention to Japanese whisky began: is Japanese whisky simply Scottish whisky made in Japan, or is it something genuinely distinct?

The answer, I think, is both — and the “both” is the interesting part.

Japanese whisky is made by methods derived entirely from the Scottish tradition. The malt whisky production process — malting, mashing, fermentation, pot still distillation, oak maturation — is the Scottish process. The equipment — pot stills, column stills, wooden washbacks, oak casks — is derived from or directly imported from Scotland. Masataka Taketsuru learned the craft in Scotland, and every Japanese whisky distiller since has worked within the tradition he brought back.

In this sense, Japanese whisky is unambiguously a product of the Scotch whisky tradition. It does not have an independent origin. It is a Japanese development of a Scottish craft.

But several things have happened to that craft in Japan that have produced genuinely distinct results.

The climate. Japan’s climate differs significantly from Scotland’s in specific ways relevant to whisky maturation. Japan has more extreme seasonal temperature variation — hot humid summers and cold winters — than Scotland’s more temperate climate. This greater temperature variation accelerates the interaction between whisky and oak cask, producing faster flavour development. Japanese whisky aged for twelve years has typically undergone more intensive wood interaction than a Scottish single malt of the same age.

The specific effect: Japanese single malts typically show more active wood character — more vanillin sweetness from new oak, more spice from the wood tannins — than Scottish equivalents of similar age, combined with the fresh fruit and floral notes that Japanese distilleries have learned to cultivate through their specific still designs and fermentation practices.

The water. Japanese whisky distilleries use local water sources — the Yoichi distillery in Hokkaido uses snow melt from the local mountains; the Yamazaki distillery uses the specific mineral profile of the water at the river confluence it was built on. Water chemistry affects fermentation and, subtly, the character of the finished spirit. The specific mineral profiles of Japanese water sources produce whisky that is different — subtly but perceptibly — from whisky made with Scottish water.

The casks. Japanese distillers have developed extensive use of Mizunara oak — Japanese oak (Quercus mongolica) — for whisky maturation, a cask type that is not used in Scotland and that produces a specific flavour profile. Mizunara oak imparts sandalwood, coconut, and incense-like flavours that are specific to casks made from this wood. The flavour profile is distinctively Japanese — literally not available from any other source — and has become one of the most sought-after characteristics in premium Japanese whisky.

The philosophy. The Japanese approach to whisky production reflects the broader Japanese shokunin philosophy — the craftsman’s devotion to the pursuit of excellence through detailed attention and continuous refinement. Japanese distilleries are characterised by obsessive attention to consistency, to process control, to the specific details that European distilleries sometimes treat as secondary to the general outcome.

These factors — climate, water, casks, philosophy — have produced a whisky tradition that is derived from Scotland but genuinely distinct from it. Not better, not worse, but different in the ways that different is most interesting.

The Major Distilleries: A Guide

Yamazaki (Suntory, Osaka) — the first and still arguably the most internationally famous. Located in the humid river valley between Kyoto and Osaka, producing whisky since 1923. The Yamazaki style is characterised by elegance and complexity — typically lighter in body than comparable Scotch single malts, with notable fruit character (plum, apricot, cherry) and the specific sandalwood note of Mizunara maturation in premium expressions. The Yamazaki 12 Year is the entry point; the Yamazaki 18 Year and the various distillery-limited releases are benchmarks of the style.

Hakushu (Suntory, Yamanashi) — established in 1973 in the Japanese Alps, at higher altitude and with cooler, fresher climate than Yamazaki. The Hakushu style is distinctly different from Yamazaki: fresher, lighter, with a characteristic greenness — fresh herbs, cucumber, green melon — and a smoky character in some expressions from locally peated malt. Hakushu 12 Year is the standard expression; the Hakushu 18 Year is exceptional.

Yoichi (Nikka, Hokkaido) — Taketsuru’s distillery, the one most directly modelled on the Scottish Highlands tradition. Coal-fired pot stills, maritime climate, proximity to the sea — the Yoichi style is the most robustly Scottish of any major Japanese distillery: full-bodied, rich, with peat smoke in most expressions and a specifically coastal character. The Yoichi Single Malt (no age statement) is the current standard retail expression; aged Yoichi expressions are difficult to find and highly prized.

Miyagikyo (Nikka, Miyagi) — the second Nikka distillery, established in 1969 in the mountains of Miyagi Prefecture, producing a lighter, more floral, more feminine style than Yoichi. Miyagikyo whisky is typically unpeated and emphasises fruit character — apple, pear, and various tropical notes — alongside the signature lightness that the distillery’s longer fermentation and lighter distillation produce.

Chichibu (Venture Whisky, Saitama) — the most celebrated of the new generation of Japanese craft distilleries, established in 2004 by Ichiro Akuto. Chichibu produces whisky of exceptional quality in relatively small quantities, with a specific emphasis on transparency of process, use of locally grown barley where possible, and extensive experimentation with cask types. Chichibu whisky is extremely difficult to find and commands significant secondary market premiums.

The Blended Japanese Whiskies: Don’t Overlook These

International attention to Japanese whisky has focused primarily on single malts, but the most commercially significant and in many respects the most interesting Japanese whiskies are the blended expressions.

Hibiki (Suntory) — Suntory’s flagship blended whisky, produced from multiple grain and malt whiskies from both Yamazaki and Hakushu distilleries, plus grain whisky from the Chita distillery. The Hibiki Harmony (no age statement) is the most widely available; the Hibiki 21 Year is one of the most beautifully balanced whiskies produced anywhere in the world. The specific achievement of Hibiki is the seamlessness of its blending — no single element dominates, everything integrates, the whole is more interesting than the sum of its parts.

Nikka From the Barrel — a blended malt and grain whisky at 51.4% alcohol, without age statement, that represents perhaps the best value in serious Japanese whisky currently available. Rich, complex, full-bodied, with the characteristic Nikka house style evident throughout. Widely available outside Japan. A genuine achievement at its price point.

Toki (Suntory) — Suntory’s internationally targeted blended whisky, lighter and more approachable than Hibiki, specifically designed for use in highballs and cocktails. Not a collector’s whisky but a genuinely pleasant and versatile drinking whisky at an accessible price.

The Highball: Japan’s Greatest Contribution to Whisky Drinking

Japan has contributed one specific drinking innovation to global whisky culture that deserves specific acknowledgment: the Japanese highball.

The whisky highball — Japanese whisky, high-quality carbonated water, a large block of ice — is a staple of Japanese bar culture and izakaya dining, and the Japanese approach to its construction is different from the approach taken in other whisky cultures.

The specific Japanese conventions: the glass is chilled before use, sometimes filled with ice and water and then emptied. A large quantity of ice — typically a single large block or several large pieces — is added to the chilled glass. The whisky is poured over the ice. The glass is stirred a specific number of times to chill the whisky without diluting it excessively. Fresh carbonated water — high-quality carbonated water, not commercial soda, served from a soda siphon or a premium carbonated water bottle — is poured down the side of the glass to preserve the carbonation. The drink is not stirred after the water is added.

The result is a specific drinking experience: cold, refreshing, lightly flavoured, with the carbonation carrying the aroma of the whisky and making it more immediate. The highball is not a way of diluting whisky to make it palatable — it is a genuinely enjoyable presentation of the specific qualities of Japanese whisky that the style is particularly suited to reveal.

The reason Japanese whisky is particularly well-suited to the highball format: the elegance and lightness of most Japanese single malts — the specific balance of fruit and floral notes that Japanese distilleries have cultivated — is carried beautifully by carbonation in a way that heavier, more robust Scotch whiskies are sometimes not. The highball amplifies the whisky’s character rather than obscuring it.

If you drink Japanese whisky only neat or on the rocks, try it once as a properly made highball. It is a different experience of the same whisky, and it may be the format that reveals most clearly why Japanese whisky has won the devotion of so many people who encountered it for the first time.

What the Future Holds

The shortage of aged Japanese whisky that began after the 2015 international attention has driven significant investment in new distillery capacity — both at existing major distilleries and through the establishment of numerous craft distilleries across Japan.

The Japanese craft distillery movement is now producing interesting whisky at establishments in Hokkaido, in the Japanese Alps, in Kyushu, and in various other locations across the country. Some of these craft distilleries — Akkeshi in Hokkaido, Mars Shinshu in Nagano, Gaiaflow in Shizuoka among others — are already producing whisky of significant quality. The broader base of production that the craft distillery movement represents will, over the coming decade as the whisky matures, provide a more diverse range of Japanese whisky than has previously been available.

The aged expressions that were depleted by the 2015 demand surge are being replenished by inventory that was laid down in the years following — meaning that the next decade will see a gradual improvement in the availability of genuinely aged Japanese single malts, alongside the new diversity that the craft distillery movement is producing.

Japanese whisky is in an extraordinary moment: the tradition established by Masataka Taketsuru and Shinjiro Torii in the 1920s has been recognised internationally, the craft movement is expanding the tradition in new directions, and the investment driven by international attention is building the aged stock that will make the next generation of Japanese whisky more diverse and more available than anything that has come before.

Kanpai to that.

— Yoshi 🥃 Central Japan, 2026

Enjoyed this? You might also like: “Sake: A Beginner’s Guide to Japan’s Most Misunderstood Drink” and “Izakaya: Japan’s Greatest Social Institution” — both available on Japan Unveiled.