Six whisky distilleries in Kagoshima (鹿児島), the southern Kyushu prefecture better known as Japan’s shochu heartland, have joined forces to sell the region’s whisky abroad. The Kagoshima Whisky Trail Council (鹿児島ウイスキートレイル協議会) said on September 9, 2026 that it will launch a shared promotional project this autumn, built around distillery tours and a printed guide map.
Representatives of the six member companies presented the plan to Kagoshima governor Koichi Shiodai the same day. The council was formed in April 2026 and is chaired by Kazuto Hombo, president of Hombo Shuzo (本坊酒造), the company behind Mars Tsunuki (マルス津貫) and Mars Shinshu. “We want whisky fans around the world to feel they have to come and tour Kagoshima’s distilleries,” Hombo said.
Yoshitsugu Komasa, president of Komasa Jozo (小正醸造), which runs the Kanosuke (嘉之助) distillery on the coast west of Kagoshima city, framed the effort as regional branding: rather than compete for attention one bottle at a time, the members want to present Japanese whisky at the scale of a whole region under one name.
Why a shochu region is turning to whisky
Kagoshima has distilled sweet-potato shochu for generations, and its producers are now redirecting that distillation know-how, plus a warm climate that speeds cask maturation, into whisky. The council says 13 companies in the prefecture hold a whisky production licence, which it believes is more than any other prefecture in Japan. They sit within a fast-growing field of small Japanese distilleries; among the Kagoshima names are Ontake (御岳), run by Nishi Shuzo in Hioki, and Kirishima Yokogawa (霧島横川) in Kirishima city, both of which bottled debut single malts this year.
The council plans to publish an official website and guide map by the end of 2026 and to organize touring routes linking the distilleries.
What it means outside Japan
Two of the members already have an international footprint. Kanosuke and Mars whiskies are sold in the United States, Britain and parts of Europe, so readers abroad can taste the region before booking a trip. Most of the other Kagoshima makers are still domestic only, and a coordinated trail is partly an export play: a single point of contact for overseas buyers and importers who now have to approach each small producer separately.
For visitors, the model is familiar from Scotland’s Islay and Speyside trails, or from Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail: a cluster of distilleries close enough to tour over a few days. Kagoshima sits at the southern end of Kyushu, about seven hours from Tokyo by bullet train or roughly two hours by air, and the project would add a whisky itinerary to a part of Japan most foreign travelers currently skip.
Source: Minaminippon Shimbun (Japanese) and KYT News NNN (Japanese).