Shochu & Awamori, Read from the Source

How the Liquor Tax Act divides shochu

The Liquor Tax Act divides shochu by distillation method. Continuous-distilled shochu is distilled in a continuous still and has an alcohol content below 36 percent. Single-distilled shochu is distilled in a still other than a continuous still and has an alcohol content of 45 percent or less. Both honkaku shochu and awamori, the subjects of this guide, fall within single-distilled shochu.

This division concerns distillation method and alcohol content. Products with very different raw materials, methods and regions all sit within the same single-distilled shochu category.

Shochu and awamori with geographical indications

The National Tax Agency has designated five geographical indications in the distilled spirits category, and all five are shochu or awamori, as of 31 July 2026.

Iki, Kuma and Ryukyu were the first geographical indications designated for any Japanese alcoholic beverage. Tokyo Shima-zake was added in 2024.

Being located in the same prefecture is not the same as meeting that indication's production standard. Each designation sets its own area and standard.

What the Ryukyu standard requires, and what it does not

The production standard for the geographical indication Ryukyu, covering awamori, sets the following requirements.

• The rice koji must use only black koji mould belonging to Aspergillus luchuensis
• The water must be drawn only from within Okinawa Prefecture
• Fermentation and distillation must take place within Okinawa Prefecture
• The moromi, fermented from rice koji and water, must be distilled in a single distillation still
• Any storage, and the filling of consumer containers, must take place within Okinawa Prefecture

The fourth requirement is the legal expression of awamori's all-koji fermentation. Rice koji and water are the only inputs to the moromi; no separate steamed rice is added later.

The standard does not, however, specify the origin or variety of the rice. Accounts linking awamori to Thai rice are widespread, but this reflects industry practice and historical development rather than a requirement of the geographical indication. This guide keeps the two separate.

Official statistics and this directory

According to table 14 of the National Tax Agency's Sake no Shiori, July 2025 edition, there were 353 licensed single-distilled shochu production sites in fiscal 2023, with a further 495 sites licensed for it while primarily licensed for another category.

The 455 records in this directory are counted differently. They are an edited record of producers and their representative brands drawn from published primary sources, not an administrative count of licensed sites. The two figures should not be treated as the same number.