Understanding Japanese Whisky and How it is Not the Same

The Japanese Whisky industry has quickly become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the international whisky market. But make no mistake about this extremely fine beverage type, it’s an animal all its own, the rules governing Japanese whisky and its American, Scottish, and Irish counterparts are completely different and that results in a completely different dram than anything you’ll taste on more western shores. And according to Forbes, Japanese Whisky overtook Sake as “the country’s most valuable alcoholic beverage export in 2020″.

Here are some key differentiators that you’ll find in Japanese whisky, per the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA), Japanese Whisky has some of the loosest regulatory requirements in the world!

• The Japanese standards allow for imported malted barley and grains, which is seriously unusual, typically you’d see domestic grain and barley used in the United States, Ireland, and Scotland.
• Maturation has to be at least 3 years and in a 700L or smaller wooden cask.
• Get this though: the cask DOES NOT have to be Oak!
  • This uniquely allows other woods like cedar, chestnut or cherry!
• Here’s a weird one too… Are you sure it’s actually just whisky? Nope.
  • The Liquor Tax Act’s definition of ‘whisky,’ requires only 10% of the final product to be whisky as the rest of us know it. The other 90% can be Rum or even Vodka!
• Despite the lack of government oversight, there are some true vintages running around out there that are worth THOUSANDS per bottle. Karuizawa bottles and other older expressions sell out almost instantly.While just a decade ago, they’d gather dust on the shelf.
• Whisky is on the rise in Japan thanks to a single good marketing campaign. Suntory launched their Highball campaign with Kakubin Whisky in 2008 and the rest is history! The “Kaku-Highball” movement was born and has taken Japanese drinking establishments by storm and relaunched the flagging Whisky distilleries in the land of the rising sun.

The History of Japanese Whisky Is Complicated

According to dekanta, “What we do know is that a few shochu and sake breweries produced Japanese whisky on the side as early as the 1850s. Whisky took a historical turn in Japan in 1923, when Suntory established the first official whisky distillery.”

The founder of Suntory Masataka Taketsuru is widely known as “the father of Japanese Whisky” and his company Nikka Whisky is one of the most popular whisky companies in the nation. Suntory was founded by Shinjiro Torii Taketsuru actually worked in Torii’s company for over 10 years before he struck out on his own and the two firms have been the most prominent ever since. Early attempts didn’t’ sell particularly well, competing with sweet wine and sake but in time Suntory Kakubin staked a claim and remains the top dog of Tokyo whisky bars.

Dozens of labels have come and gone with many closing their doors in the early 2000’s but the whisky distillery business in Japan is poised to make a huge comeback.