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The arrival of Japanese whiskey is largely attributed to Masataka Taketsuru, who began his whiskey journey in 1918, when he went to the famous spiritual center of alcohol, to the Celtic peoples. His family had a sake factory that still works today and taught him the ability to make alcohol. He improved his education at the University of Glasgow, where he studied chemistry. This and his practice in Scotch whiskey distilleries gave him an amazingly deep knowledge of production and blending. In 1920, he married Jessie Rita Robert Cowan and the couple lived in Campbeltown for several months. Later that year, they traveled to Japan.

In 1934, Masataka founded Nikka Whiskey and his first distillery was built on the island of Hokkaido and was called Yoichi. This area was well suited for whiskey production, although its location was remote. In 1969, he founded a second distillery, Miyagikyo Distillery, known as Sendai Distillery. The first whiskeys were sold as Sendai Single Malt, and then, until Nikku bought the Asahi Brewery in 2001, Miyagiko Distillery began to grow to meet government demand. The Nikka product range includes single-type whiskeys from a pair of distilleries, as well as a range of blended whiskeys.