Being the only whisky distiller in the northeast region of Japan, Sasanokawa Shuzo is praised as a rising star in spirits industry. Based in Koriyama, Fukushi, one of the oldest sake breweries in northeast Japan, expanding their categories with whisky.

Asaka Distillery is the only craft whisky distiller of Sasanokawa Shuzo in the northeast region of Japan. The Japanese whisky industry calls it as a rising star in today’s spirits world. Yamazakura is a relatively new brand in that portfolio, focusing on high quality flavorful malt whisky in their blends. Sasanokawa Shuzo began in 1765 with a history of more than 250 years, mostly active in Japanese sake and shochu field. In 1946, they obtained their first license to distill whisky. In 2015, the company established Asaka Distillery and introduced new copper distillation equipments from Miyake Industry in Japan. In 2016. Asaka Distillery was the smallest distiller in Japan and their first distilling still has the capacity at 2000L and the second has only 1000L.

Fukushima is blessed by its clean ultrapure water from melting snow due to the unique region climate in the northeast part of Japan, making it to be an ideal environment for whisky production.