Japanese whisky has really had a moment - a 100 year journey culminating in its larger than ever popularity in 2023 - it might be unfathomable that it was just two decades ago that its fate had seemed incredibly uncertain and no one knew if the entire industry would survive. 

Thankfully several distilleries through their sheer will (and of course, some amount of good fortune) have pressed on and managed to survive to emerge stronger and more popular than ever today.

The Tokyo International Bar Show is back and with some exciting news. Fuji's Master Blender Jota Tanaka and Chichibu's founder Ichiro Akuto taking the stage. (Image Source: @CocktailFreaks)

Thus this 100th year anniversary of Japanese whisky is a really big deal and is perhaps at least a strong enough cause to bring many of Japan's distillers together in celebration.

At the 2023 edition of the major drinks event, the Tokyo International Bar Show, which finally returned after a four year hiatus, a mysterious bottling of Japanese whisky showed up for the celebrations - the 100 Years Project Fellow Distillers.

An incredibly exciting showing from Japan's major distillers - (Left to Right): Suntory, Nikka, Fuji, Mars and Chichibu's take on the 100 Years Project Fellow Distillers. (Image Source: @MORIy_smoky)

As some attendees noted, this was a rare five bottle project that included the likes of Japan's largest whisky distillers - Suntory, Nikka, Mars, Fuji and Chichibu, who came together to provide their respective malt whiskies, which was then divided and taken back by each distiller who then blended the five component malt whiskies according to their own blending theme.

This means that with five component malt whiskies from Suntory, Nikka, Mars, Fuji and Chichibu, each distiller crafted their own blended expression which was made available for tasting during the event. Accordingly, Suntory went for a "Smoky" theme, Nikka focused on the "Sherry" aspect, while Mars chose to go for "Harmony", Kirin's emphasised "Fruity", and finally Chichibu selected the "Mizunara" theme.

(Image Source: @craft_drinks)

In Suntory's case, several expressions were offered swapping between Yamazaki and Hakushu malt whiskies used as their share of the blended components, each distillery using up to 60% of their own malt whiskies for the blended expression.

This is a really big deal because collaboration between Japan's distillers has been relatively sparse in the past, in particular due to the lack of active distillers in the landscape for many decades.

Nonetheless all that seems to be changing, with what started out as the first whisky swapping (distillers exchanging whiskies with one another to allow for more variety in their arsenal in creating blended whiskies) happening between Chichibu and Mars (Hombo Shuzo), which culminated in the two expressions of the Chichibu x Mar Komagatake (and the corresponding vice versa Mars Komagatake x Chichibu) Malt Duo whiskies. 

Mars President Kazuto Hombo, a secretly huge cat lover, and Chichibu Founder Ichiro Akuto. (Image Source: Hombo Shuzo)

The recent spate of newly inaugurated craft whisky distillers have also been busy swapping their whiskies, having been kickstarted by Saburomaru's chief, Takahiko Inagaki, who began a series of swaps for his Far East of Peat expressions that first started with Nagahama Distillery (which also has their own Inazuma expression that actively employs the use of whiskies from other Japanese craft distillers) and has also now featured Eigashima Distillery's Akashi malt whisky.

Saburomaru chief, Takahiko Inagaki with Nagahama blender, Yusuke Yahisa. (Image Source: Nagahama)

And that's not all, the Japanese whisky landscape with now over 100 active distillers and counting is rife with never before seen activity. With again Saburomaru's Inagaki having collaborated with whisky expert Tadaaki Shimono, who runs the popular whisky shop in Japan Maltoyama, the pair has kickstarted the first independent bottler of Japanese whiskies under the T & T Toyama brand, that now counts barrels from Kanosuke, Eigashima, Ontake, Sakurao and Osuzuyama, under its program.

While not uncommon in say Scotland, with the likes of Cadenhead's, Single Malts of Scotland, Douglas Laing, Berry Bros, Gordon & MacPhail, Samaroli, Sestane, you name it, it was a phenomenon that had not been possible in Japan up until recently given how the landscape was predominantly dominated by two major distillers.

T & T Toyama is potentially a gamechanger in the Japanese whisky game. (Image Source: Nomunication)

And so all of this activity, and of course the release of the 100 Years Project Fellow Distillers, underscores just how exciting Japan's whisky landscape is becoming with lots of innovation and collaboration pushing the category into what will be a very intriguing next leg of growth and evolution.

If you thought Japanese whisky had peaked, just keep an eye out, because there is definitely way more to come.

Lead image courtesy of @MORIy_smoky Twitter.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot