Fuji Gotemba Distillery master blender Jota Tanaka
The most compelling reason for exploring Japanese whisky is the artistry of its blenders, because in many cases—including with single malts—Japanese whiskies are all about the balance of multiple components. Here’s a look at four master blenders from Japan’s most prominent distilleries, exploring the inspiration and creativity of their craft.
Ichiro Akuto
Founder and Chief Blender, Venture Whisky (Chichibu)
Every Japanese whisky collector knows the Ichiro’s Malt Card Series of Hanyu bottlings, as these rarities can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Chichibu founder Ichiro Akuto is the grandson of Hanyu Distillery’s founder Isouji Akuto. Ichiro first made his way as a whisky entrepreneur by bottling the last of Hanyu’s barrels after its closure in 2000. He launched Chichibu in 2004 and fired up the distillery in 2008, delighting fans of the Card Series releases. Ichiro is renowned for his dedication to quality at Chichibu. He installed mizunara washbacks, developed an on-site cooperage and floor maltings, and sources Japanese barley. He attends the Hokkaido timber auctions to bid against furniture makers and rival distillers to secure supplies of the best quality logs of tight-grained mizunara oak. In 2019, Ichiro opened the larger Chichibu 2 facility, just down the road from Chichibu 1, and he now plans to build his own grain distillery.
Shinji Fukuyo
Chief Blender, House of Suntory, whose distilleries in Japan are Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt whisky, and Chita for grain whisky
During his 40-year career with House of Suntory, Shinji Fukuyo, the fifth chief blender in the company’s history, has worked on such renowned expressions as the Yamazaki 1984 and Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013, and the very limited Yamazaki 55 year old, introduced in 2021. Fukuyo became chief blender in 2009, and along the way he spent four years training in Scotland, followed by stints at Suntory’s Hakushu and Yamazaki Distilleries. Fukuyo is in charge of whisky quality—including every innovation, whether a new Hibiki blend or the single malt expressions in the 2024 Tsukuriwake Series. Within the Suntory Global Spirits family, Fukuyo has collaborated internationally on new releases like Legent (with Beam master distiller Fred Noe) and Ardray (with Suntory scotch master blender Calum Fraser). Fukuyo’s skill lies in delivering complex blends utilizing the full range of whisky styles from the company’s distilleries, while staying true to a lineage of Suntory master blenders.
Hiromi Ozaki
Chief Blender, Nikka Whisky, whose primary whisky distilleries in Japan are Yoichi and Miyagikyo. The company owns four other distilleries that focus mainly on other spirits.
A microbiologist by training, Hiromi Ozaki joined Nikka in 1988, starting in research and development. On his career path at Nikka he gained experience in virtually all facets of whisky making including maturation, blending, grains, and yeasts. All of that led him to the chief blender’s role in 2021. Ozaki is the seventh chief blender in a line that began with Masataka Taketsuru, the company’s founder. He oversees the making of many great expressions, including Nikka’s blends, Nikka Coffey Grain, and Miyagikyo and Yoichi single malts, among many others. A recent tour de force was The Nikka Nine Decades blend, comprised of whiskies from each of the past 90 years. Ozaki also produced the limited edition Nikka Discovery Series, some of which drew on experiments from earlier in his career, like Miyagikyo Aromatic Yeast, where Ozaki selected whiskies aged more than 20 years from his own fermentation trials.
Jota Tanaka
Master Blender, Fuji Gotemba Distillery
Jota Tanaka has perhaps had the most interesting career of any Japanese whisky maker. He worked as a winemaker in Napa Valley in the early ’90s before moving to brown spirits, spending seven years at Four Roses Distillery prior to returning to Japan. In 2010, Tanaka became master blender at Fuji Gotemba, sister distillery to Four Roses. Given the tools at his disposal—a malt whisky distillery and a versatile grain distillery producing styles found in bourbon, scotch, and Canadian whisky—Tanaka has plenty of scope to create flavor. Fuji Single Grain showcases his expertise in blending Japanese grain whiskies and the distillery’s extensive grain capabilities to create complex grain whiskies overall. Tanaka created nearly 100 test blends before finalizing the Fuji 50th Anniversary Single Malt, blending whisky from the inaugural distillation runs in 1973 with malts from every decade from the 1970s to the 2010s. Fuji made its U.S. debut in 2021. —Jonny McCormick
New Names to Watch
In a situation not dissimilar to what occurred in the U.S. and Ireland, the revival of whisky’s fortunes in Japan has brought forth an array of independent distillers. Ichiro Akuto of Chichibu, the granddaddy of this movement, is the biggest star among them, but here are some smaller distillers whose whiskies are either highly anticipated or have already been creating excitement.
Ian Chang
Komoro Distillery
Former master distiller at Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan, Ian Chang moved to Japan in 2020 and formed Karuizawa Distillers Inc. with businessman Koji Shimaoka. The partnership opened the strikingly modern Komoro Distillery in 2023. This single malt facility is built at a much higher altitude than Kavalan, which should result in slower maturation times. Given Chang’s prowess in cask usage with sherry, bourbon, port, wine, and others, Japanese whisky fans are eagerly awaiting the first release, expected no earlier than 2026.
Yoshitsugu Komasa
Kanosuke Distillery
This master blender is also president of Komasa Jyozo, a family-run shochu maker founded in 1883. Kanosuke Distillery opened in 2017 specializing in malt, but it also makes grain whisky at the nearby Hioki Distillery. Komasa works with peated and unpeated malt, double distilling the single malt spirit, but varying which two of his three different-shaped copper pot stills he uses, thus creating a variety of spirits with different characteristics. His signature style uses Mellowed Kozuru casks, from its cask-aged shochu brand launched in 1957.
Tatsuro Kusano
Mars Tsunuki Distillery
Kusano joined Mars Distilleries’ owner Hombo Shuzo in 2013 and quickly became involved in building Mars Tsunuki, its second distillery on the island of Kyushu. Being in charge at Mars Tsunuki means he has a thorough knowledge of the spirit’s character when it comes to selecting each year’s annual release, whether it’s peated or unpeated. He directs maturation using Mars’s array of cask types for on-site storage in Kyushu, at the mountain distillery campus of Mars Shinshu, or Mars’s Yakushima Aging Cellar, which is on a subtropical island.
Taiko Nakamura
Shizuoka Distillery
Shizuoka was founded by Taiko Nakamura in 2016, after a visit to Islay’s Kilchoman in 2012 inspired him to build his own distillery. Shizuoka has an unusual setup that includes Japanese cedar washbacks, a former Karuizawa wash still, and a wood-burning, direct-fired wash still. Nakamura has released contrasting bottlings from those two different wash stills, comparing imported malt and Japanese malt. The distillery also produces some whiskies that are 100% made from Japanese barley. Thus far releases have been small, such as the First Edition Duo Set which comes in two 200 ml bottles.
