Taking a page from the meticulous blending that takes place in Japanese whisky production, many producers macerate and distil each botanical separately and then blend in order to retain tight control over the gin’s finished flavour profile. Examples include Sakurao Limited, which includes Hiroshima oysters, and Benizakura 9148, infused with Hidaka kelp, dried shiitake mushrooms, dried daikon, and horseradish. Other producers are exploring the umami character of Japanese cuisine. The gin is infused with premium tea varieties, including Gyokuro and Tencha. Another release mining a heritage vein is Ki No Tea, a collaboration between The Kyoto Distillery and Hori-Shichimeien, a Kyoto tea grower with roots that date back to 1879. Suntory’s Roku Gin, made in Osaka, pays homage to the cherry blossom that the region is known for, with infusions of sakura flower and sakura leaf, alongside sencha green tea, gyokuro, sanshō, and yuzu peel. Some brands are tapping into Japanese cultural heritage through botanicals. This Hokkaido produced citrus-forward spirit is infused with yuzu, kabosu (a sour citrus), amanatsu (a sweet citrus fruit), shequasar (a very sour citrus), angelica, coriander, lemon and orange peel. One gin that highlights the many varieties of native citrus in Japan is Nikka Coffey Gin. Juniper often stays in the background, allowing the local botanicals to shine. One of the ways that these gins distinguish themselves is through the myriad of indigenous ingredients that impart a distinctly Japanese flavour profile to the finished spirits. With no specification about what base must be used to produce gin, producers are exploring distillations of traditional Japanese beverages such as sake or awamori (a native spirit unique to Okinawa, Japan). And a new wave of distillers is digging deeper still into Japanese ingredients. Others take a page from whisky bases, using corn. There is a heavy shochu influence at play in many product launches, drawing on the long history of distilling rice, imo (sweet potato), and barley in Japan. Jump-started by The Kyoto Distillery in 2016 with the launch of the first Japanese craft gin, Ki No Bi, the gin category is now seeing a lot more product innovation that fuses Japanese sensibilities and ingredients with gin’s juniper bite. The first commercial launch of Japanese gin didn’t happen for another hundred years or more in 1936, Suntory introduced Hermes Dry Gin, a London Dry style.ĭespite this, gin wasn’t widely consumed in Japan until more recently, and the Japanese gin movement is a fairly new development. “Many existing shochu producers are switching their production to the trendier gin category as well, as an aging consumer base has led to declines in shochu volumes over the years,” he adds.Īlthough Japan is better known for its whisky in the world of spirits, the country’s long history with gin dates back to the Edo period (1603–1868). Although many of these specified whisky production, they will likely make gin while they wait for the whisky to mature,” notes Piotr Poznanski, Research Director at IWSR.

“In 2021, over 20 new distilleries were granted production licenses by the government. However, the appetite for the spirit outside of Japan is particularly strong, with volumes of Japanese gin increasing by over 20% (CAGR) during the same period globally.įor Japanese craft producers, gin is an ideal counterpart to whisky’s slow maturation, allowing them to quickly launch products to market and tap into the global gin trend. IWSR data shows that volume consumption of Japanese gin in Japan grew by approximately 3% (CAGR) from 2014 to 2019.

The global thirst for Japanese whisky over the past 20 years has paved the way for craft gin to bloom in the country, driving interest and demand for other Japanese spirits in whisky’s wake. More widely known for whisky and the local spirit shochu, Japan is becoming an established gin market as well.

Gin in japanese