One of the significant steps forward for the Japanese whisky category within Japan in 2024 was the launch of the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee. The primary goal of the Committee is simple: creating a legally enforceable definition of Japanese whisky in Japan.
As I write this from Tokyo in January 2025, there is no legal definition of Japanese whisky in this country or any other.
If you’ve been following this website or the category for some time, you probably already knew that. But for our readers who did not, let’s take a look back at how we got into this mess. Let’s go back to the beginning.
- Late 19th century-early 1900s: Spurred by increasing tariffs on imported spirits, Japan makes fledgling attempts to produce Western-style spirits domestically.
- July 1918: Masataka Taketsuru takes off for Scotland to learn how to make “real” whisky.
- 1923: Construction starts at Japan’s first genuine whisky distillery, the Yamazaki Distillery. In charge of the project? Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of today’s Nikka. The wallet? Shinjiro Torii, the founder of today’s Suntory.
- 1943: Japan introduces the first “grading system” for whisky that taxed based on the amount of “genuine,” i.e. malt whisky in the bottle and the abv. Given the economics of wartime Japan, this kicked off a decades-long saga of both Suntory and Nikka balancing quality, revenue, malt whisky stocks, and their ability to meet the growing nationwide demand for whisky. Over the years, the tax agency revises the law several times, but even bottles of the highest grade tokkyu whisky (特級) peaked at requiring only 27% malt whisky. And no, that malt whisky did not have to come from Japan.
- April 1989: Japan’s National Tax Agency (NTA) implemented changes to the liquor tax, eliminating the tier system for whisky where taxes depended on how much malt whisky a bottle contains. After the changes–and still today–a given bottle of whisky needs to consist of only 10% whisky distilled from grain or malt. In line with those historical moves, the National Tax Agency is notoriously only interested in protecting its tax revenue. It is not interested in protecting the “brand” of any given alcohol category.
- 2015: The Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association (JSS) introduces the “JSS Unified Mark,” a sticker on bottles of sake, shochu, awamori, or mirin indicating that it is entirely brewed/distilled in Japan.
- 2016: Seeing the growing popularity of Japanese whisky, the Japan Whisky Research Centre (JWRC) holds a press conference at a hotel in Tokyo, calling for a standard for Japanese whisky in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics. The call to action largely falls on deaf ears.
- 2016-2018: Looking to cash in on that popularity, more and more bottles labeled “Japanese whisky” do not actually contain any whisky distilled in Japan. The trend continues today.
- April 2017: The first edition of Stefan van Eycken’s Whisky Rising: The Definitive Guide to the Finest Whiskies and Distillers of Japan is released. Thanks to Stefan’s exhaustive research into not just whiskies and distilleries but also the history of Japanese whisky, enthusiasts finally get an authoritative overview of “genuine” Japanese whisky. A vastly updated second edition is released in 2023.
- July 2018: nomunication.jp publishes the aggressively titled “Japanese whisky, real or fake?” infographic, showing which brands are entirely distilled in Japan, and which brands are not (that graphic is now very outdated; instead I now advise buyers look out for certain red flags). The graphic goes on to become the site’s most-accessed post… by far.
- October 2018: Japan’s “Wine Law” is implemented by the National Tax Agency, specifically aiming to prevent winemakers from importing wine and labeling it as “Japanese wine.” At the time, I wrote at length how Japanese whisky had a lot of takeaways.
- September 2019: The Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition announces that for the 2020 competition, bottles entered in the “Japanese Whisky” category must be entirely a mash of grain fermented with yeast, then distilled and matured, all in Japan.
- May 2020: For The New York Times, Clay Risen writes how “Some Japanese whiskies … Aren’t Even Whisky,” contributing to a rising global awareness of the lack of a standard for Japanese whisky and the legal shortcomings of the law compared to those of whiskies of other countries.
- Full Year 2020: For the first time in history, the total JPY value of exports of Japanese whisky exceed the JPY value of Japanese sake, making it Japan’s most valuable alcoholic drinks export.
- February 2021: The Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA), the industry’s self-governing trade association, announces a standard for Japanese whisky. Myself and many others are quick to point out that it is not a law (almost like Shibuya’s toothless “no street drinking” thing), and only applies to members of the JSLMA. An organization that many of the offending “Japanese whisky” makers are not members. In fact, upon closer inspection, the standard has a lot of loopholes.
- April 2021: The first-ever Japanese Whisky Day is celebrated on April 1, the (reported) day of the release of the first-ever Japanese whisky from Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery.
- March 2022: Japan’s tax agency holds the first-ever Japanese Whisky Symposium. While there weren’t any big reveals, it did show that the NTA was paying attention to developments in the industry.
- December 2022: Release of the first-ever Japanese Whisky Yearbook. The first edition covers 80 Japanese whisky distilleries. The second edition (2024) covers 114 distilleries, highlighting the breakneck pace of new whisky distilleries coming online in Japan.
- 2023: Japanese whisky celebrates its 100th anniversary, as construction of Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery started in 1923.
- April 2024: The grace period for the JSLMA standard ends, meaning all members must now be fully compliant when labeling bottles as “Japanese whisky.”
nomunication.jp launched in 2016, so we’ve been together for almost the entire past decade of this journey. It’s been a privilege to offer readers a seat at the front of this roller coaster.
Despite the century-plus history of the Japanese government remaining largely ambivalent about whisky’s quality or origin, some of Japan’s whisky makers certainly have since around the 1980s. As a result, Japanese whisky is more successful than ever. What can ensure this success continues, and how can we protect the category’s future?
Japanese Whisky Day 2024
On April 1, 2024, I attended a seminar at the Tokyo office of the Japan Whisky Research Centre. We’ve touched on many of the points of this seminar already, but the main message was loud and clear: Japanese whisky needs legal protection. Membership to the JSLMA is voluntary. Ergo, that organization’s standard is voluntary.
Enter the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee
With the JSLMA having its own standard, its efforts will likely be focused on promoting this standard. Who might look to take things a step further? Changing the liquor tax law to include a strict definition of Japanese whisky would require convincing the Japanese Diet to pass those changes. Or, to use an American phrase, it would “take an act of Congress.”
There might be a shortcut. Japan’s National Tax Agency can issue “Directives” (通達) that apply to licensed breweries/distilleries. In the case of Japanese whisky, this means it would apply to all distilleries. And I’ve never heard of any Japanese whisky moonshine. This is precisely what they did in the case of “Japanese wine,” establishing a legal standard for it back in 2018.
July 1, 2024 marked the formal establishment of the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee as a non-profit foundation whose goals are:
- Revisiting the Japanese whisky standard and political lobbying to establish a cross-party parliamentary group with the goal of the standard’s legalization
- Lectures and seminars to accomplish the above
- Recruiting support via online signature campaigns, etc.
- Crowdfunding to attract supporters and publicize these efforts nationwide
- Establishment of Japanese Whisky Heritage Center to spread Japanese whisky culture
- Other activities to accomplish the above
Essentially, we’re pushing the Diet to pressure the National Tax Agency to issue a directive for Japanese whisky, just as they did for Japanese wine. (Disclaimer: I say “we’re trying to accomplish” because I sit on the Board of Trustees of the Committee.)
There’s no guarantee this approach will work. Already, the JSLMA has sort of given us the cold shoulder, and the meeting with the National Tax Agency indicates they may have some other plans they’ve been considering.
Request: Send in your photos
Realistically, the problem of poser Japanese whiskies is bigger outside of Japan than in Japan. If you visit your local liquor store and go to the “Japanese whisky” section, how many of them are actually Japanese whiskies?
One thing that came out of the initial National Tax Agency meeting is that they want a better understanding of how widespread this problem is overseas. To that end, one way you can contribute from outside of Japan is by simply sending in some picture(s) of the Japanese whisky section at your local liquor store. Email or via any of nomunication’s social media DMs is fine. You can even comment on this article! The pictures won’t be published anywhere — we simply want to make the case stronger on our next visit to the National Tax Agency.
Interview: Mamoru Tsuchiya and Takako Maki, Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee
I’ve worked with the other founding members of the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee over the years, so I had an informal meeting with chairman Mamoru Tsuchiya and Committee secretary Takako Maki to gain some more insight into exactly what the current problems are and the approach the Committee will take.
Please note that the interview has not really been edited for brevity, so unless you’re very interested in the specifics… thanks for reading! If you are a Japanese whisky maniac, please read on.
Mamoru Tsuchiya (MT): The JSLMA standard only applies in cases when using the phrase “Japanese whisky.” Not when using phrases like simply “whisky” or “Made in Japan.” The standard does not apply here.
Whiskey Richard (WR): Which is to say it’s weak?
MT: Suntory’s Tory’s Whisky or Nikka’s Nikka Whisky, Black Whisky. None of these claim to be Japanese whisky. From the Barrel. That kind of thing is a bit confusing. The standard only applies when using the phrase “Japanese whisky.” And it’s that specific phrase – “Japanese Blended Whisky” for example does not require the standard to be followed.
WR: I was under the impression that even if you put some word in between “Japanese” and “Whisky,” it would fall under the standard.
MT: Everything that falls under the standard now specifically uses that phrasing. Single Malt Japanese Whisky, Blended Japanese Whisky. “Japanese Blended” on the other hand does not apply. This is difficult for consumers to understand, but the makers are choosing their naming quite deliberately. So you have to use the specific phrasing for the standard to apply. What’s more, if the makers are not members of the JSLMA, the standard does not apply at all.
WR: And there are plenty of makers that are not part of JSLMA.
MT: It’s meaningless. It’s simply the JSLMA’s internal rules. It does not apply to all whisky made in Japan. Membership in the JSLMA is optional. The JSLMA currently has about 90 members, but of course “Western Spirits, Liqueurs, and Fermented Drinks” isn’t talking about just whisky. It includes beer and wine. (Editor’s note: the Japanese name of JSLMA is 日本洋酒酒造組合, where 洋酒 refers to any non-Japanese category of drink. The organization’s official English name, “Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association” makes no reference to this bit.)
WR: And membership is entirely optional.
MT: Yes. Of the members, there are only about 30 that actually have a distillery and make whisky. Only a third of the total membership of the organization. But in our Japanese Whisky Yearbook we know of at least 90 that are legitimately making whisky. That means only a third of those are members of the JSLMA. The other 60 distilleries aren’t members of JSLMA at all.
MT: And let’s say you’re a distillery and want to become a member. Membership costs a mere JPY 20,000 per year.
WR: That’s way cheaper than I expected.
MT: Exactly… so shouldn’t they just all join? Why wouldn’t they? I suppose they just don’t want to deal with it. In other words, since they can’t even bother joining, the JSLMA is certainly not an organization that speaks for the industry. That’s compared to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) – we have nothing of the sort in Japan.
WR: And in the US we have DISCUS, ADI.
MT: In essence it’s saying the standard is just an internal company rule. As a company, we wouldn’t care about other companies’ rules. What’s more, even if you were to break that company rule, there is no penalty at all. Ordinarily, if you’re an employee of some company you have to follow their rules. If you don’t there would be some kind of punishment. But there’s nothing in this case.
It’s just completely different from rules worldwide. Let’s say you join the JSLMA and follow the rules. But there are so many other companies that don’t. I think there’s a lot of negative sentiment growing. So only one-third of makers are members, and even those members don’t have to follow it. What’s the point?
MT: Another thing is that, as you know at nomunication, the rules were translated into English, French, and maybe Chinese. So many people worldwide think that there is now a regulation for Japanese whisky. Depending on your take, it’s almost like the standard was introduced to intentionally mislead the world. I have a hard time thinking it’s anything else. But maybe that perspective is a bit too aggressive.
MT: If you really thought that Japanese whisky should be something specific, I’d say it’s not the job of the JSLMA to make it happen. So who should? There is no organization like that in Japan.
WR: But from where I sit, the NTA seems like a hard nut to crack. Sake, for example, doesn’t have to be made in Japan. It seems like a regulation for Japanese whisky would take a really long time.
MT: Within the Liquor Tax law there is a definition for whisky.
WR: Well sure, and not for Japanese whisky.
MT: Exactly, and the law says nothing about where it has to be made. The law is about collecting tax on whisky sold in Japan. It does not even say anything about having to be 100% made from grain. At least with sake, it does indeed require sake to be made from rice. With whisky, even 90% of the volume could be brewer’s alcohol.
WR: And that’s quite rare.
MT: Rare is an understatement. There are no first-world countries that allow it. But as far as the NTA is concerned, if they can collect tax on it, their mission is accomplished.
WR: One thing I’ve been wondering about. Let’s say the NTA does introduce a regulation for Japanese whisky. Would the tax on it not then increase?
MT: The NTA regulations didn’t take exports into consideration. In the post-WW2 days, nobody could have predicted that Japanese whisky would be exported. In reality it’s only been in recent years that we’ve seen these kinds of exports. If you look at that high export value, there’s plenty that is not genuine Japanese whisky, let alone “whisky” as far as the regulations of other countries are concerned.
WR: I want to know about the breakdown there. How much is actually Japanese whisky, versus how much is just claiming to be?
MT: The NTA definitely does not disclose that. And the Japanese whisky standard isn’t something that they decided, so it’s easy to understand why.
WR: I mean sure the export value of whisky has surpassed sake, but how much is actually made in Japan? I’ve just had this doubt in the back of my mind.
MT: Our estimate at the Japan Whisky Research Centre is that 70% of what’s exported does not meet the JSLMA standard.
WR: 70%? Isn’t that a bit much?
MT: If you look at the domestic sales, probably 90% doesn’t meet that standard. We don’t think exports are that high. But in recent years, a certain distillery has been taking home gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition for several years running.
WR: A place that starts with the letter M.
MT: Yes, it does start with the letter M. Single Malt 18 Year. There’s no way they were making whisky 18 years ago.
WR: They only got their license, what, 16 years ago?
MT: That, and there are plenty of doubts as to whether or not they’re even making it now. That’s the kind of thing that’s popular overseas.
WR: When you’re actually at liquor stores overseas, there’s no way to tell. Sure, the JSLMA has a standard, but you can’t tell the difference when they’re on the shelf. One thing I’ve been thinking about for a while. If you look at JSS, they have stickers on bottles of Japanese sake, shochu, awamori, and mirin, that show they comply with JSS’s standards. I was thinking something similar might be good for JSLMA’s Japanese whisky.
MT: What’s the law in the US now? Something called nihonshu or seishu must be made from rice, correct?
WR: Well sure, but it isn’t really called nihonshu. It’s usually just called sake in English.
MT: In Japan that can be both nihonshu and seishu. For junmai you can use only rice, but around half the volume in Japan uses brewer’s alcohol. In the case of wine, there was a directive a few years back.
WR: Yes, and I wrote an article about it at the time, saying there are some takeaways for Japanese whisky.
MT: There’s a few levels for directives within the NTA. The highest level is from the tax agency chief himself, then there’s another level of directive from the agency.
WR: Can I stop you right there for a minute. How important is a directive anyway?
MT: In the example of Japanese wine. A proper “regulation” would require a change in the law. But making a new law is a huge ordeal.
WR: So if someone goes against the directive, they lose their license?
MT: There’s a penalty. So while a NTA directive is not a new law, it is an addition to the existing law. Adding new conditions. For whisky, Japanese whisky would have to be saccharified, fermented, and distilled in Japan, then if it uses whisky from outside of Japan, it would be called “domestic-made whisky.”
WR: So that’s the goal of the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee?
MT: We are moving forward to establish the Foundation on July 1st. The main goal is getting some legal protection for Japanese whisky.
WR: And that’s because the JSLMA is not doing it themselves.
MT: Indeed.
WR: But why won’t they?
MT: JSLMA?
WR: Yes. I don’t understand why JSLMA won’t do it. So the Japanese Whisky Promotion Committee has to step in.
MT: If they did it for us, we would be thrilled. But they won’t.
WR: Any specific reason?
MT: That’s my question too.
WR: Because of Suntory and Nikka?
MT: Probably. As we discussed earlier, basically anyone can join it if they pay the 20,000 yen yearly membership. But the actual operating costs have to be contributed based on each members’ sales numbers. And with the operating costs in the hundreds of millions of yen, Suntory, Asahi/Nikka, and Kirin probably put up 99% of it. So the tiny distilleries end up paying only 20,000 yen. So would JSLMA really do it? I mean, we want them to. But… look at the major products of those companies.
WR: Kakubin, Black Nikka…
MT: Kakubin’s sales for 2023 hit 4,000,000 cases.
WR: And Kakubin is now a Japanese whisky. At some point!
MT: It did. But below that there’s brands like Tory’s. And for Asahi, probably 90% of their sales is Black Nikka. Kirin has Riku. Let’s say the JSLMA tries it though. Would the NTA take it? The answer is no. The NTA doesn’t want to make it happen. So how did wine happen? Again this is just speculation, but when Shinzo Abe hosted the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, he offered Japanese wine, saying that Japan has been making good wine recently. But not a single one on the wine list was actually Japanese wine. When someone explained it to him, he apparently got angry about it. “I’m hosting world leaders, giving them wine, but it’s not from Japan. In fact, we even said it’s Japanese wine!” That alone is what set things in motion.
WR: That’s it?
MT: Only politicians can get bureaucracy moving in Japan. Japan isn’t a democracy.
WR: And here I thought it was.
MT: The government is kind of broken.
WR: Going back to the JSS sticker. I think there should be something similar for Japanese whisky.
MT: But I suppose only JSLMA members would get it, right? And what happens when someone uses the stickers inappropriately? If the JSLMA could do something like that themselves, they should do it. But the fact that some members of the JSLMA are saying foreign regulations is the place to start indicates that they have no intention of changing the regulations in Japan.
MT: One of the other things we’re trying to accomplish is starting a grassroots consumer movement.
WR: I think there are plenty of overseas consumers who would also want to be part of that movement.
MT: We are looking to start a signature campaign. Our top priority at the moment is starting a caucus in the Diet. The Whisky Caucus. Members of the Diet would pressure the NTA to get the directive out. Given what we’ve found out over the past year, this looks like the quickest path. Even then we expect it to take 3 to 4 years.
MT: Going back to the question of why the JSLMA does not try to make the standard into a regulation. It’s something everyone is wondering. I think part of the reason is that the JSLMA is not entirely focused on whisky. They also have beer and wine. There needs to be a whisky-specific organization, like a Japanese Whisky Association.
MT: Ultimately we think that Japanese whisky faces the risk of going to the wayside compared to whiskies from the rest of the world without legally enforced protection of the category.
WR: Thank you for your time!
Hi there! I created and run nomunication.jp. I’ve lived in Tokyo since 2008, and I am a certified Shochu Kikisake-shi/Shochu Sommelier (焼酎唎酒師), Cocktail Professor (カクテル検定1級), and I hold Whisky Kentei Levels 3 and JW (ウイスキー検定3級・JW級). I also sit on the Executive Committees for the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition and Japanese Whisky Day. Click here for more details about me and this site. Kampai!