What Is After Whisky? Uniquely Japanese-Style Gin Is Catching On In The Spirits Market

While Japanese whisky is one of the most coveted categories in the global spirits market, Japanese gin is quietly gaining attention lately.

The gin market is expanding worldwide and its revenue has reached $15.56 billion in 2022. The number is expected to grow annually by 7.46% in the next 3 years.

In Japan, the rise is even more prominent. The domestic market expanded by 25% between 2015 and 2020. What is driving the boom is uniquely Japanese-style gin. Japanese gin accounted for only 26% of the market in 2015 but it rose to 39% in 2020.

Then, what is the Japanese-style gin?

Gin is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from grain mash, flavored with juniper berries and “other aromatics”. For the aromatics, popular Japanese gin brands use the country’s classic botanicals, such as yuzu, green tea, ginger and sansho pepper.

Some brands distinguish themselves even further by separately macerating and distilling each aromatic to maximize its flavor—just as Japanese whisky is made by carefully blending daintily different whiskies. As a result, juniper, the main character of standard gins, remains in the background to make other aromas shine.

The Japanese gin boom was spearheaded by Ki No Bi, which The Kyoto Distillery released in 2016. Suntory followed it with the launch of Roku in 2017 and Sui in 2020. Nikka’s Coffey was also released in 2017 and now you can find numerous brands made by much smaller distilleries all over the country as well.

Born Out Of The Pandemic

Among those new distilleries is Nanbu Bijin.

If you drink sake, you most likely know the name for its numerous award-winning labels. The company was founded in a small town Ninohe, Iwate Prefecture 120 years ago.

You would think that the traditional sake producer had decided to make gin to seize an opportunity in the rapidly growing gin market. But the decision came out of necessity. It was Covid-19 that drove Kosuke Kuji, president and the fifth-generation owner of Nanbu Bijin, to a new adventure.

“When the pandemic began, bars and restaurants significantly reduced their operations and our sales plummeted,” says Kuji.

For him, it did not just mean a grave revenue decline. He had to save his important business partners: the rice farmers his family had had relationships with for generations. These farmers started to carry massive excess inventory due to the abruptly declined demand from sake breweries.

As Kuji saw a serious shortage of rubbing alcohol in the market due to the pandemic, he decided to manufacture it with the farmers’ surplus rice. But opening a distillery was a major commitment and making rubbing alcohol alone would not be sustained as a business. Naturally, spirits production appeared as an option. The challenge was that using the artisanal sake rice for the base spirit would cost way more than making standard gins.

“Even so, I wanted, and needed to energize our own staff who had been working very hard dealing with difficulties caused by the pandemic.” Embarking on a completely new business would be a good way to give them hope. Kuji decided to take the financial risk and opened a new distillery nearby in February 2021. The first batch of his gin was released in August of that year.

The product is called Crafted Gin by Nanbu Bijin, which powerfully represents Ninohe’s terroir. “Our business exists because we are here in Nihohe, not in Tokyo or anywhere else,” says Kuji. Ninohe has only 26,000 residents and the number is shrinking fast. Kuji wants Nihohe to be known as a small town that makes world-class products. He has been successful to reach his goal in the world of sake so far.

The base spirit of the new gin is made with a native rice species called Ginotome and Kuji chose Joboji urushi for the aromatic. Joboji is a celebrated lacquer indigenous to Ninohe and has been used to restore important cultural heritages throughout the country, such as the Golden Pavillion (Kinkakuji) in Kyoto. Also, the extraction technique of the lacquer is named an Intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Kuji chose to use only Juniper and Joboji urushi to flavor the gin not to dilute the local identity. The lacquer’s barks, twigs and trunk are scorched to add subtly toasty, smoky notes to the gin.

The gin has a rounded, gently sweet taste that comes from the sake rice. Koji, the key ingredient for fermentation, imparts delicate umami to the liquid. But the most important ingredient of the gin may be the crew at the new distillery—they are also Nanbu Bijin’s skilled sake brewers who know exactly how to maximize these unique qualities of rice and koji.

Since its release in August 2021, the gin has received the Gold medal at the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition 2022 and the Silver medal at the International Spirits Challenge 2022. It is expected to be available in the U.S. later this year.

Nanbu Bijin is not the only sake producer who joined the gin market. Other sake and shochu producers have started making craft gins. These new players are motivated to produce spirits for different reasons besides seeking business growth.

The labor shortage has been a serious issue for the traditional sake and shochu industries and spirits production can be one way to boost their attraction. Because their jobs are highly seasonal, some makers decided to make spirits to offer year-round employment for their seasonal workers; some are aiming to provide challenging jobs for full-time employees for their personal growth.

The popularity of the Japanese-style gin has already spread outside the country. The export of Japanese gin increased by 850% between 2016 and 2021, according to the Japanese government.

With the unique flavors and new players joining the market, Japanese gin is something fun to watch right now.