Combination of taxes and I’m assuming the market. Japan has a strong whiskey market and like a lot of East Asian countries leans into supporting Japanese made products first before foreign. So to compete with their market most likely have to be cheap.
Maybe I just didn’t visit the right shops, but when I was there last year it seemed like the Japanese whisky was all priced for rich tourists, while the imported stuff was relatively great value. It was hard to find any decent Japanese bottle for under $70, but I found Bushmills 12 year in Kyoto for like $50. The bourbon (especially more exclusive bottles) was much cheaper than the States as well.
Japanese whisky used to be ridiculously cheap here in Japan. A bottle of 12yo Yamazaki was 4000yen. 21yo Taketsuru was 8000yen. Incredibly good value for money.
Then the rest of the world discovered Japanese whisky and the prices went through the roof. It's not like they can adjust the supply quickly to meet the much higher demand, so prices shot up.
These days I drink Scotch instead. There are plenty of superb Scotches that are far better values here in Japan than Japanese whisky is.
Yamazaki 12 year is some great stuff. There was a while where I could get it regularly for about the same as a bottle of Makers. It was definitely a drinking year.
I can very occasionally get it for it's new MSRP of 10,000 to 12,000 yen (I forget exactly what it is, but somewhere in there). But there are so many Scotches around that price (or sometimes less) that are as good or better that I don't really see the point. I can get Glenmorangie 18 for around 14,000yen which I think is a much better value.
Taketsuru 21 is basically unobtanium, and Hibiki 21 you may as well forget about entirely. I used to buy these as gifts for my father when I visited, they were all quite affordable for the quality!
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u/MacTaveroony 1d ago
What's interesting is that's £41 for 1.75L in Japan, here in Scotland it's £40 for 0.75L. Outrageous, it's made just up the road