Irish Whiskey in Japan—Jameson, Teeling Single Malt & Redbreast 15: Lock-in Livestream

Irish Whiskey is Japan’s fastest growing spirit category and there is tremendous love for all things Ireland.

We were joined this episode by some amazing guests, all the way from Japan, who shared their love for Irish Whiskey, Irish music and Ireland.

Rob Hennesy is a whiskey-loving Irishman living in Fukui City who joined us from the back of an Irish Whiskey van he built to promote and sell Irish Whiskey.

Tetsuro Hayakawa is a Japanese Irish Whiskey Expert living in Tokyo and Japan’s biggest Irish Whiskey fan with a collection of more than 250 different Irish whiskeys. Tetsuro shared his love for Irish Whiskey and showed us some of his very special whiskeys.

Tom O’Neill is the owner of The Blarney Stone Pub in Osaka and Tom shared a little about the Irish pub culture in Japan and what beers and whiskeys sell more than any other.

And last, but by no means least, we were privileged to be joined from Kobe by Kilbeggans, a Japanese traditional Irish music band who played a few of their favorite tunes for us.

We sipped on three whiskeys that have opened up the Japanese market to other brands and are extremely popular across the country: Jameson is more usually served in highballs than served neat in Japan so we made a Jameson highball, sampled a Teeling Single Malt and finished with a lovely Redbreast 15 year old.

We were very excited to learn more about Japanese/Irish cultural similarities and how Irish Whiskey is taking a whiskey-rich country by storm, and this Lock-in was an incredible one. 

Sláinte/Kanpai!