Japanese whisky distillery brought back to life with crowdfunding

A sake brewery with over a century of history has turned to crowdsourcing to help revamp its whisky distillery – the only one in the Hokuriku region near the Sea of Japan – and bring in tourists.

Wakatsuru Shuzo located in Tonami, Toyama prefecture, has been raising money via crowdfunding and other sources to refurbish the dilapidated distillery, which has fallen on hard times since the company branched into whisky-making more than 60 years ago.

“I’d like people to see where we make genuine whisky,” said Takahiko Inagaki, the 29-year-old board director of the parent company and leader of the project.

Inagaki, who worked for a computer company in Tokyo for three years after graduating from university, decided to return to the family business, originally founded in 1862, because he wanted to try his lot at creating something by hand.

But the impetus for the plan was pure coincidence. Sampling a 1960 whisky made by the company that happened to be in storage, he was struck by the flavour. “It was extremely multilayered, revealing the taste of the time,” said Inagaki of the unblended whisky distilled before he was born.

The distillery, which is on the same site as the sake brewery, has been manufacturing whisky since 1952, when Inagaki’s great-grand father Kotaro received his license. Over time, however, the facilities had fallen into disrepair. There were even leaks and broken windows.