History of Japan's whiskies

Map of Japan

At the time the WW1 was ending, a young Japanese student came to read chemistry at Glasgow University. Masataka Taketsuru developed a taste for whisky when living in Scotland and decided, successfully in the end, to seek employment as a trainee at a distillery. Seeing a Japanese man in the whisky-making regions of Scotland was less commonplace 90 years ago than it is now.

So taken was he by Scotland and its whiskies that he married a Scottish girl who, naturally, accompanied him when he returned to Japan in 1921. Taketsuru was hired by Shinjiro Torii to assist in the establishment of Japan’s first whisky distillery in 1923. Shinjiro Torii founded Suntory and Taketsuru went to build his own distillery in 1934 and founded Nikka. These two companies remain the dominant forces in the Japanese whisky industry.

In the 80 years since the opening of Yamazaki distillery, whisky distilling has become a huge business in Japan, spawning the birth of other distillers. These lesser-known, niche whiskies have been impossible to source in Europe. Now, Number One Drinks Company has addressed that - we are the sole European importer of these whiskies.