Shogun was Awesome.

It was like Game of Thrones on backstabbing steroids. And who among us didn’t see the amour, the swords, and just sort of give that little nod… Ooooooh yeah. It’s funny when you think about a culture with such history and storied tradition the word modern doesn’t leap out you. But in the realm of Whisky, Japan is very modern.

The word modern is very subjective. If we’re talking about modern technology, we’d point straight to AI, llm’s, electric cars and not to the invention of frozen food (in 1923). But in whisky, if your country started distilling in 1923… It’s modern stuff. Now as you can imagine the Japanese did things properly.

Their whisky was inspired by Scotch. The correct inspiration. One of the pioneers, Mas-a-kata Tak-et-suru, studied the Scottish process incessantly.

He was hired by another key figure, Shin-ji-ro Torii, who had built a distillery in Kyoto. In an area famous for excellent water. Together, they worked on the brand that became Suntory. Releasing the first ever Japanese whisky in 1929, the Suntory Shirofuda. And was this ground-breaking innovation financially successful?

It was not. The Japanese public at the time was barely aware of whisky and were still loyal to their native sake. As a result, a schism formed between Tak-et-suru and Torii. And like all boy bands from the 1920’s they split up and became rivals. Tak-et-suru went on to found the Nikka distillery. Today, Suntory and Nikka are the two biggest distilleries in Japan.

After a lot of trial and error, Suntory released the square-bottled Kab-u-kin in 1937, which was significantly more successful in the Japanese market, in that it actually sold. It sold well. So well it’s still the best-selling whisky in Japan, but is not available for us to try outside of Asia. They are a verifiable conglomerate now, owning Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, and many more spirit companies from the whisky world and beyond. But that’s now, we’re still talking about back then.

In the 1950s, as Nikka and other distilleries took hold, the brutal ‘whisky wars’ began. Each company fighting for dominance and control over the industry. Then the Japanese whisky market evolved.

It began to develop its own customs, including ‘bottle-keep’. Whereby in a bar you buy a bottle, leave it behind the bar and it’s kept there for whenever you visit. Whisky became a popular companion to Japanese food. The industry continued to grow, with demand peaking in 1983. Alas once again falling short in comparison to beer and sake. But then globalisation happened –

And Japan started collecting international whisky awards left, right and centre. Demand increased, and so did their exports. In fact, a Japanese whisky has won the top award in at least one category for fifteen years running at the International Whisky Awards. Slowly, it has re-entered the field of view of both mainstream and critical whisky enjoyers and is becoming as revered as it’s forefathers. A Yamazaki 55-year-old whisky sold for $800,000, very impressive for such a comparatively modern industry.

It would be foolish to believe that Japan’s grip on the whisky market will slip in the coming years. With India drinking so much whisky, it seems like the deeply Scottish tradition is spreading it’s way through Asia. We’ve written many times on how whisky reflects the landscape of its origins – so this can only be interesting news.

And this won’t be the last time we write about Japan. I’ve barely covered a fraction of what makes it so fascinating. Stay tuned for more about blended whiskies, and how they are beautifully tied to the Japanese tradition.