Kirin will put the first 12-year-old expression of its Fuji whisky brand on shelves in the UK, France and the United States months before it reaches shops in Japan. Kirin Brewery, a unit of Kirin Holdings, announced on September 18, 2026, that Kirin Single Grain Japanese Whisky Fuji 12 Years will launch in the UK and France in October, then in the US and at Japan’s international airport duty-free shops in November. A regular domestic retail release is not planned until 2027 or later.
The whisky is made entirely at Kirin Distillery Fuji Gotemba (富士御殿場), the company’s single site in Shizuoka Prefecture that produces both malt and grain spirit. Kirin blended three types of grain whisky the distillery makes, choosing stock the company says had reached its individual “peak of maturation,” to build what it calls a new flagship for the Fuji Japanese whisky line. Kirin describes the result as showing aromas of ripened fruit with a clean sweetness, a step up in character from the brand’s standard grain releases.
The bottle carries the brand’s first shoulder label and a metal capsule finished in a gold-foil style, with “Aged 12 Years” engraved on the packaging to mark it as a premium tier within the range. It ships at 700ml (23.7 US fl oz) and 48% ABV, non-chill filtered, with pricing left open by Kirin ahead of launch.
Why it matters beyond Japan
Fuji Gotemba (富士御殿場) is one of the few Japanese sites making both malt and grain whisky under one roof, a history covered in our distillery guide below. This release is notable less for the whisky itself than for the order of the rollout: Kirin is sending it to the UK, France and the US as a first-look product, with Japanese drinkers waiting until 2027 to buy it at retail. Kirin frames the move explicitly around building the Fuji name overseas, a sign of how Japanese producers are now treating Western and European markets as launch markets rather than afterthoughts for premium expressions. For readers in the UK and France, this is one to watch for at specialist retailers from October; US buyers should expect it alongside November’s rollout.
Why this matters
Fuji Gotemba (富士御殿場) was built in 1973 as a joint venture between Kirin, Seagram and Chivas Brothers, and it remains one of the few distilleries anywhere that makes both malt and grain whisky on the same site, using water drawn from Mount Fuji’s snowmelt aquifer. Where Suntory and Nikka built their reputations on single malt, Kirin’s engineering strength has always been grain: master blender Jota Tanaka’s Fuji Gotemba Single Grain Aged 25 Years has won World’s Best Grain Whisky at the World Whiskies Awards three times since 2016. This 12-year release is Kirin finally putting an age statement on that grain expertise for the broader Fuji line rather than reserving it for a rare top-end bottling.
The sequencing, UK and France in October, the US and Japanese duty-free in November, Japan itself not until 2027, also reflects how Kirin now treats its home market. Pernod Ricard already distributes Fuji internationally, giving Kirin a built-in overseas sales channel that most Japanese producers still lack, and the company is using that channel to build the Fuji name abroad before domestic drinkers get a chance to buy it. That is a reversal of the traditional pattern, where Japanese whisky reputations were made at home first and exported once supply allowed. It also echoes a wider shift among the bigger Japanese producers, who increasingly treat ageing grain stock, long an unglamorous input blended quietly into other products, as a premium story worth telling on its own.
For readers outside Japan
This release is built for readers outside Japan: the UK and France get it first, in October 2026, through Kirin’s existing distribution arrangement with Pernod Ricard, with the US following in November alongside global travel-retail listings. Readers in continental Europe and North America should expect to find it at the same specialist retailers that already stock the standard Fuji single malt and single grain bottlings, rather than needing a parallel-import route. Kirin has not published a retail price as of this report, and the earlier three-strong Fuji core range, the single malt, single grain and the blended Fuji, has sold in the UK since 2023 through the same Pernod Ricard network, so the 12-year should slot into those existing listings once distributors confirm stock.
Japanese readers, by contrast, are the ones who have to wait, with a domestic retail release not planned until 2027 or later; airport duty-free at Japanese international airports is the one domestic channel carrying it from November. For background on how Fuji Gotemba’s grain whisky differs from the single malts most readers associate with Japan, see our explainer on Japanese grain whisky and the distillery’s own Fuji Gotemba guide. Readers curious about Japan’s other historic grain-whisky site, now closed, can compare it with Kawasaki, Japan’s lost grain whisky distillery.
Source: PR TIMES / Kirin Holdings (Japanese)
Primary source: Kirin Holdings official press release (Japanese).