Akashi is the whisky brand of Eigashima Shuzo, a family company in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture that has been making sake since 1679 and holds a genuine first: in 1919 it became the first company in Japan to obtain a license to distill whisky — five years before Suntory's Yamazaki opened. Production stayed small, seasonal, and largely domestic for decades, until 1984, when Mikio Hiraishi built a dedicated Scottish-style malt distillery on the grounds and named it White Oak. It remains one of the smallest whisky distilleries in Japan, running just two copper pot stills and only distilling whisky from March through October — the rest of the year the same team, led by toji Yuji Nakamura, makes sake and shochu. What sets the site apart is the location: the only Japanese whisky distillery on the coast, on the Seto Inland Sea near Osaka Bay, with the warmest average temperatures and lowest rainfall of any distillery in the country, driving fast maturation and a heavy angel's share. The flagship Akashi White Oak blend combines in-house malt and grain with sourced Scottish whisky, aged in American oak — a soft, approachable 40% pour. Above it sit the Akashi Meïsei blend and the limited Akashi Single Malt releases: 100% in-house malt at 46%, natural color, non-chill filtered, often finished in sherry, bourbon, or unusual casks and genuinely hard to find. Japan's oldest whisky license, still in the family, nine generations on.

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