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Stories of makers, ingredients, places and the decisions behind Japan's most compelling drinks.

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The Philosophy of Working Backward

February 14, 2020. It was Shingo Gokan’s 37th birthday. The bartender had won the Bacardi Legacy Global Cocktail Competition, been named International Bartender of the Year at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, and now leads SG Group, which operates more than a dozen bars across Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, and Madrid. For his birthday, he chose to release a new shochu brand. This was not a mere coincidence, but an answer to a question he had contemplated for years from behind bar counters around the world.

Drink

The Future of Sake Rice

Sake is born from rice. Today, this fundamental truth is bringing a new set of challenges to the industry. Many of you may remember the “Reiwa rice crisis” that began in the summer of 2024. News of table rice disappearing from supermarket shelves made headlines around the world. But the ripple effects reached much deeper. The very supply base for sake-brewing rice—known as sakamai—is now at a structural turning point.

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A Back Bar Where Category Boundaries Begin to Blur

On a Bangkok night, I’d like you to slowly take in the back bar of a small, unassuming spot—left to right, if you can. Next to a cask-aged rice shochu from Minamiuonuma in Niigata sits an amber-hued kokuto (brown sugar) shochu from the Amami Islands. Further along, a seven-year, oak-aged awamori from Nakijin in Okinawa waits its turn, followed by a Pinot Noir from Yoichi in Hokkaido. Beside it rests a French craft gin, distilled from hand-picked botanicals in the Loire Valley. A decade ago, such a lineup might have seemed unlikely. Clear lines divided where each belonged—sake in Japanese restaurants, gin in bars, wine in Western dining rooms. In 2026 Bangkok, those lines are quietly beginning to dissolve.

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When the Five Senses and Data Meet in the Same Brewery

Visit a sake brewery in Japan, and you may see the tōji cup the air of the kōji room in their palm, reading temperature and humidity through the skin. “Brewing with the five senses” is a beautiful phrase. But when the person who possesses those senses is nearing their seventies, with no successor in sight, a reality emerges that beauty alone cannot resolve. As of 2026, Japan has roughly 1,100 sake breweries, representing less than half the number seen at the industry’s peak in the 1970s. Many closures are driven by a lack of successors and labor shortages. When a brewery shuts its doors, the rules of thumb stored in the tōji’s mind, such as “At this air temperature, stir the moromi 30 minutes earlier” or “When the aroma of the kōji changes like this, lower the temperature by 0.5°C,” are often lost without ever being passed on. Now, quietly but unmistakably, a movement is spreading to preserve that “vanishing intuition” as data and hand it to the next generation.

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At the Foot of Nakijin Castle

In Nakasone, Nakijin Village, Kunigami District, in the northern part of Okinawa’s main island, there is a distillery where 35 large storage tanks stand quietly at the foot of the Nakijin Castle Ruins, one of the sites that make up the UNESCO World Heritage “Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu.” Founded in 1948, Nakijin Shuzo Co., Ltd. is the only distillery in Nakijin Village. Over more than 70 years since the chaos of the postwar era, the distillery has refined its long-aged kusu, or mature awamori, into a series named “Sennen no Hibiki” — “Echoes of a Thousand Years.”

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From the Cellars of Tatsugo to Brown Spirits

Nestled in Ogachi, Tatsugo Town, within Kagoshima Prefecture’s Oshima District, Machida Shuzo rests between deep subtropical greenery and the coral reef seas. Kokuto shochu, crafted from brown sugar, holds a geographical indication that restricts its production strictly to the Amami Islands. Within this protected heritage, Machida Shuzo presents Honkaku Shochu “Sato no Akebono Gold” as an alternative philosophy for enjoying kokuto shochu. At 43% ABV in a 720 ml bottle, it pours into the glass with a faint amber hue that elegantly catches the light. At first glance, it could almost be mistaken for whisky. Yet, its true identity remains a honkaku shochu, born from Amami brown sugar and rice koji, then patiently matured in oak casks.

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The Lifecycle of an Opened Bottle

“I want to stock great sake. But when I serve it by the glass, I end up with half a bottle left over.” This is a recurring sentiment voiced by owners of sophisticated Japanese restaurants and wine bars in Bangkok. “I’d like to offer sake by the glass, but the moment I bring in local craft labels or more niche selections, the remainder of an opened bottle simply sits. It feels ungracious to dispose of it, but I cannot serve a pour that has lost its vitality. Ultimately—what is the true timeframe?”

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Beyond the Glass

In 2025, the number of international visitors to Japan surpassed 42.7 million, marking a new era of global interest. Tourism spending reached 9.5 trillion yen, as travelers increasingly seek immersive cultural experiences over conventional sightseeing. And among the new destinations quietly gaining presence in this experiential landscape are sake breweries across Japan.

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From 27 to Over 140

In 2021, when the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA) announced its voluntary standards for Japanese whisky, there were roughly 27 operating distilleries in the country. Just five years later, in 2026, that number has surpassed 140. This rapid proliferation is exceptional by global standards. Yet, this figure does not signify a mere "bubble." Rather, it signals a quiet tectonic shift unfolding across Japan, as distillers in diverse regions seek to capture the distinct character of their land and their own philosophies within casks.

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A Sake-Brewing Craft That Turns Amber in a Snow Cellar

At the foot of sacred Mount Hakkai in Minamiuonuma, Niigata Prefecture, there is a semi-underground storage cellar packed with roughly 1,000 tons of natural snow. This is Hakkaisan Brewery’s yukimuro, or snow cellar. Without any artificial electric cooling, American white oak barrels rest silently in darkness, free from vibration, at a year-round temperature below 4°C. What lies inside them is neither whiskey nor bourbon. It is authentic rice shochu, created by a sake brewery using the techniques and byproducts of sake making. Its name is Hakkaisan Authentic Rice Shochu Oak Barrel-Aged “Fubaika.” Bottled at 40% ABV, this limited production has been quietly crafted since its debut in 2016.

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