Lance Surujbally is the editor of and sole contributor to The Lone Caner, an impressively exhaustive and regularly updated website dedicated entirely to the world of rum. In these circles, Japanese rum is a subject of hot debate and inquiry. It makes sense that there would also be an active internet scene for rum drinkers. Whisky, vintage wine, mezcal, amaro, Champagne-all of these have online communities that offer a window into their respective geek subcultures. “Before that, we had sold very little Japanese rum.”

“We have seen an increase in the number of bottles of rum purchased since around the beginning 2020,” says Liam Hiller, head of content at Dekanta. Over on Dekanta, that online wonderland of Japanese spirits, there are another dozen or so rums available for purchase by U.S.-based drinkers willing to pay a $30 per bottle shipping fee. It’s reminiscent of a Caribbean gold rum, aged for three years in American oak and agreeably mellow.īut we are just scratching the surface here. Teeda, meanwhile, is made on the island of Okinawa itself by the Helios Distillery, which has been in operation since the early 1960s. Cor Cor hails from Minamidaito, a small island east of Okinawa, and is available in Green and Red expressions (Green is an agricole style, while Red is made from molasses). Each of these distilleries offers a broad range of bottlings, with just a few expressions being currently exported. ”Ĭurrently, Americans interested in Japanese rum have their pick of just three brands: Cor Cor, Teeda and Kiyomi. “With a half a millennium of sugar cane production occurring alongside centuries-old distilling traditions, it would appear that verily, quietly, Japanese rum is setting itself up to go on a hero’s run. However, it is distinct: Kokuto shochu uses a combination of black sugar and rice koji in the fermenting process and clocks in at just 25 percent ABV. For instance, on the Amami Islands, there is sugar cane distillate known as kokuto shochu, which some have pointed to as the true precursor to rum in Japan. Both of these places have their own distilling traditions. Today, much of the sugar cane grown in Japan comes from Okinawa, where it first arrived in the 17th century from China, and other surrounding small islands, including the Amami Islands and Bonin Islands. “There has been an increase in the number of brands hitting the market,” Pellegrini tells me, with many new brands available and “more in the works-it almost feels like this could eventually be the next chapter following the Japanese gin era.” If the artist has a non-Roman script name, this is listed as well.While there is no clear “patient zero” for Japanese rum, by the late 19th century a confluence of factors-local distilling practices (particularly awamori), sugar cane production and global food and drink influences-conspired to create a fertile ground for rum-making experimentation in Japan. Artists currently without Wikipedia pages have their corresponding Japanese Wikipedia pages linked.Artists are listed by their most common musical stage name (for example, Tsuyoshi Domoto, not Endlicheri Endlicheri/244 Endli-x/Tsuyoshi).Artists associated with a group who reached number one, yet have their own solo page in Wikipedia are not listed here, unless they hit number one as a solo artist.All artists who are mentioned in song credits are listed here this includes one-time pairings of otherwise solo artists and those appearing as 'featured' (for example, for ' It's All Love!', both Kumi Koda and Misono receive a mention each).Each act's total of number one Hot 100 hits is shown after their name.Solo artists are alphabetized by last name, groups by group name excluding 'A', 'An' and 'The'.Yui holds the record for the most number-one songs by a female solo artist.

The number one spirit in japan