Japanese Whisky Brands: 7 Japanese Whiskies Worth Exploring

Ask most people to name the best Japanese whisky brands and you'll get the same three or four answers. Fair enough, they're good. But they cost more every year, they're harder to find every year, and they leave out a lot of what's actually going on in Japanese whisky right now.

Japan's a long country. It snows hard up north. Way down south, people are still at the beach in October. And the whisky is different depending on where you are. There's a distillery finishing its malt in Japanese oak. There's one making whisky out of rice. There's even a cask that was left alone for 36-plus years before somebody finally bottled it.

So we picked seven bottles from five Japanese whisky brands. Every one is Japanese whisky from Japan, made in either Niigata or Okinawa. That's it, two regions. And yet they taste about as different as whisky can.

What Makes Japanese Whisky Distinctive?

Japan got whisky from Scotland about a hundred years ago. That's why you still see copper pot stills and malted barley at a lot of distilleries. But Japanese makers didn't stick to copying the Scots for very long.

The wood is the first big difference. Mizunara is a Japanese oak, and honestly it's a nightmare for coopers. It's soft. It's porous. The barrels leak. So why bother? Because whisky that's spent time in Mizunara picks up this soft, incense-y, sandalwood kind of note, and you just don't get that from other oak. You'll see it on a few of the bottles below.

Then the weather. Japanese summers are hot and muggy in most places, and Okinawa hardly does winter at all. When it's that warm, the spirit soaks in and out of the barrel a lot faster than it would in a chilly Scottish warehouse. Which means the whisky can taste older than it is.

There's also Japan's own drinks history to think about. Sake and koji-based rice spirits were around for centuries before anyone in Japan made whisky. A few distilleries use those old methods in their whisky today. That's how a rice whisky fermented with black koji ends up existing.

And however it's made, it's meant to be drunk slowly. Maybe a small glass neat after dinner. Maybe a big, ice-cold highball when it's hot out.

Shinobu Whisky: The Samurai Spirit of Niigata

Niigata is on the Sea of Japan side, backed by mountains. People there say the region has "three white treasures" (snow, rice and sake). The snow melts each spring and becomes some of the purest water in Japan. Ask any distiller and they'll tell you water is a huge deal.

Shinobu Distillery was the first whisky distillery to really put Niigata on the map. Ken Usami, who founded it, had already started Niigata Beer Company. What he'd wanted for a long time, though, was a whisky that tasted like home.

The word shinobu means "forbearance". Think of the patient, dig-your-heels-in kind of endurance samurai were known for. Good name for a whisky that takes its time in Mizunara.

1. Shinobu Pure Malt Whisky (Mizunara Oak Finish)

New to Shinobu Whisky? Start here. It's 100% malted barley, aged in sherry and bourbon casks and then finished in Mizunara.

On the nose you get vanilla right away, then plum, then a little mint. It's round and fairly rich when you sip it. Sweet, a bit spicy, some smoky oak in the back. The finish sticks around. 43% ABV, not chill filtered, no added color.

Want some smoke? There's a Lightly Peated version too.

Masahiro Whisky: Okinawa's Flagship Malt

Okay, now go almost 2,000 km south, to Okinawa. Masahiro Distillery started there in 1883. The founder was Shobun Higa. His dad, Shozoku Higa, was Master Chef for the Ryukyu royal court. For most of the distillery's life, it made awamori, which is Okinawa's own rice spirit. It's also the first distillery in Okinawa to get ISO 9001 certification.

Masahiro Whisky is their main whisky. Okinawa's heat, humidity and sea air all push the whisky to take flavor from the barrel faster.

2. Masahiro Pure Malt Whisky 12 Years Old (Oloroso Sherry Cask)

Twelve years in American oak bourbon hogsheads. Then a finish in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks. It's all barley, but there's a twist: they put some Okinawan black koji into the fermentation. You won't find many malts that do that.

First sniff is ripe citrus and apricot. Behind that, jammy plum and honey. Sip it and it's candied fruit, warm almonds and something toasty, a bit like fresh bread. Long, nutty finish. It won Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2021 and at the International Spirits Challenge in 2023.

Love sherry-cask whisky? Buy this one first.

Kujira Whisky: Okinawa's Rice Whisky

Same distillery as Masahiro, but Kujira Whisky has no barley in it at all. None. It's made with long-grain indica rice from Thailand, which Okinawan distillers have been using for awamori for around a hundred years.

There's no malting step. Instead, they use black koji, a mold that does really well in Okinawa's heat and gives the spirit a lot of its depth. Then it's into oak, where it ages fast in the warm air. What comes out is soft and a little sweet. It doesn't taste like barley whisky at all. "Kujira" means whale, by the way, after the Ryukyu trading ships that used to sail all over Asia. Our Kujira Whisky guide has more on that.

3. Kujira Okinawa Whisky Inari

First time trying rice whisky? Go with Inari. It's easy to drink and it makes it pretty obvious what the rice and koji are adding.

4. Kujira Okinawa Whisky 10 Years Old

Same spirit, ten years in the Okinawan heat. It comes out deeper and richer, and you taste a lot more oak. Great if you already like rice whisky, or if you're curious how far it goes with age.

SHIN Whisky: Built on Integrity

"Shin" means integrity. It was a core samurai value, and it's been Shinano's guiding idea since the company started in 2012. The SHIN brand came straight from that. The plan was pretty simple: make pure, honest spirits, and work with distilleries that feel the same way.

SHIN Whisky is made at Shinobu Distillery in Niigata. Same snowmelt water, same soft spot for Mizunara. Every SHIN bottle gets a Mizunara finish.

5. The SHIN Blended Whisky (Mizunara Oak Finish)

Easiest to like of the seven, and the cheapest too. Smooth, relaxed, and really, really good in a highball. Buying your first Japanese whisky? You won't regret this one.

6. The SHIN 15YO Malt Whisky (Mizunara Oak Finish)

The 15 Year Old is at the other end of the range. The extra years give it way more depth. Sip it slowly, neat or with a couple drops of water. Want a stepping stone first? Try the 10 Year Old or the Pure Malt.

Miyabi Arts Whisky: Where Whisky Meets Japanese Art

Miyabi Arts isn't like the others. It matches super rare whisky with Japanese art from the Hosomi Private Collection. That collection was started by Hosomi Ryo, an Osaka industrialist who has since passed away. His family, four generations in now, still looks after it. It has art from the Heian period all the way to the Edo period, works by Hokusai, and over two dozen pieces officially named Important Cultural Properties.

7. Miyabi Okinawa Whisky 36 Years Old

By far the rarest bottle here. Distilled at Masahiro from 100% indica rice and black koji. Then it spent more than three decades in one sherry cask. Master Blender Arakaki Sunao picked it himself, and it's thought to be the oldest Ryukyu whisky ever released.

It's tied to a 17th-century folding screen (a byōbu) showing Hasedera Temple. You buy it as a set of three bottles, and each bottle carries part of the screen. There are only 95 sets. That's 285 bottles, worldwide.

Nose: dried tropical fruit, herbs, something softly floral. Palate: velvety, with honey, brown sugar and spice. The finish starts oaky, gets sweeter as it goes, and there's just a hint of smoke and sandalwood at the end. It's really a collector's bottle. Get in touch with us for pricing.

How to Choose a Japanese Whisky

Everybody loves a "best Japanese whisky brands" list. We get it. But the right bottle for you depends way more on what you like than on where it ranks. Here's what we'd think about.

What do you drink now? If you like soft, fruity whisky, a Mizunara-finished malt like Shinobu usually works. If sherried Scotch is your thing, grab the Masahiro 12. If everything's starting to taste the same to you, try a rice whisky like Kujira. It'll shake things up.

How are you going to drink it? Blends and younger bottles are made for highballs and lazy evenings. Save the older bottles for a nice glass and a quiet night.

Don't jump straight to the expensive stuff. Every brand here has an easy starter bottle and an older one, so you can move up once you know what you like.

And read the label. Grain, casks, age, where it was distilled, aged and bottled. It's all there. If you want Japanese whisky from Japan that really tastes like where it came from, the label tells you most of what you need.

Still stuck? Here's a cheat sheet:

Find Your Next Japanese Whisky

Niigata gets buried in snow. Okinawa barely gets cold. They're at opposite ends of the country, and you can taste it. Between these five Japanese whisky brands, you've got Mizunara malts, a sherried award winner, whisky made from rice, and a 36-year-old bottle that's basically a museum piece.

Whatever you go with, don't rush. Try it neat first. If it feels a bit tight, add a splash of water. Once you know it, make it the way plenty of people in Japan do, as a highball with lots of ice.

Have a look through the full Shinano collection when you're ready. Kanpai!