A Japanese Whisky Check-In With The President Of The House Of Suntory

Forbes

05-06-2025

Every year, the Yamazaki Distillery attracts visitors from all over the world.
Suntory Global Spirits
Suntory (and by extension, commercial Japanese whisky as a distinct style) celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. Once an unassuming domestic spirit that rarely left its local market, Japanese whisky has become an international cultural phenomenon in the 21st century. The rapid growth of the category, especially in the Western world, caught many by surprise. Today, Suntory's Japanese whisky products have a foothold in many key regions, but the global whisky consumer market has matured significantly over the last decade.
Suntory is focusing its efforts on authenticity, innovation and reaffirming its commitment to quality over quantity. What does the Japanese whisky category look like today, and what will it look like years from now? I recently spoke with the new president of The House of Suntory to find out.
The walk from Midtown Manhattan to 11 Madison Ave on a 70-degree April afternoon buzzed with the classic mid-week hustle and bustle of New York City. After a brisk walk through busy city streets, my arrival at the building's lobby was a welcome respite. It was cool, quiet and nearly spotless, with walls adorned from floor to ceiling in stunning marble.
Hibiki 30 Year was a willing photo subject at Suntory Headquarters in NYC.
Chris Perugini
The feel of the lobby was merely a primer for the moment the elevator doors opened to the 12th floor. Suntory Global Spirits headquarters is a transformative sensory experience, and for a brief moment, I was in another world. The lobby was filled with greenery, a flowing fountain, and a 'signature scent' that was faint yet distinctly floral. There were plenty of office activity during my visit, but aside from the people I was actively talking to, I barely heard another sound the entire time I was there.
After a brief tour of the office, I was led to a tech-enabled conference room that adjoined another space used for traditional tea ceremonies—a true East-meets-West dichotomy. That's where I sat down to speak with the man in charge of the most successful Japanese whisky brands in the world.
In addition to being the new president of The House of Suntory, Masaki 'Mory' Morimoto just relocated to New York City after spending the vast majority of his life in Japan. Throughout his thirty-year career with Suntory, Mory has had a direct hand in transforming the company's Japanese whisky portfolio from humble beginnings as a domestic product to the global powerhouse it is today. What drew Mory's interest in Suntory in the first place?
Masaki "Mory" Morimoto is the new president of the House of Suntory
Suntory Global Spirits
'I was attracted by Kakubin when I was a university student. I decided to join Suntory because I was interested in beer and liquor products,' says Mory. 'When I worked in the Tokyo office, I was in charge of almost all our whisky products as a brand manager, as a senior manager, and as the president of the business in Japan.'
Mory spent the last few years in Singapore before relocating to New York City in early 2025, after his appointment as the new president of The House of Suntory. The move to the United States will give him first-hand access and exposure to their 'most important' market.
American whisky drinkers, in particular, have been drawn to Japanese whisky for over twenty years. The allure of Asian culture in the United States is nothing new, and Japanese whisky appears to be no exception. In hindsight, the global success of the category shouldn't have surprised anyone, but raises an important question. If Japanese whisky has been around since the 1920s, why did it take until the 21st century for the category to permeate American whisky pop culture?
Japanese whisky wasn't internationally recognized throughout the 20th century, so it was never thought of as an export product. 'We could not sell our products outside of Japan. Most of our sales came from the Japanese market,' recalls Mory.
That all changed shortly after the turn of the century, when in 2003, Yamazaki 12 Year Old was awarded the gold medal at the International Spirits Competition in the UK. As was the case for 'off-the-radar' international whisky brands in the early 2000s, competitions like these were widely covered, and award-winning brands were thrust onto a global stage.
Yamazaki 18 Year was Suntory's first product exported to the United States in 2004.
Suntory Global Spirits
For Mory and his team, the ISC victory was proof of concept that Japanese whisky could succeed in international markets. As he recalls, 'It was a big trigger to start exporting and marketing outside of Japan.' Mory wisely chose first to target a large export market that was culturally resonant with Japan. 'I was a brand manager of the Yamazaki and Hakushu brands, and I decided to promote those brands in the United States first.'
The rest, as we know, is history. Yamazaki was first launched in the U.S. in 2004. Just ten years later, Suntory Holdings purchased Beam Inc. for $13.6 billion to form Beam-Suntory (now Suntory Global Spirits).
'The integration of Beam and Suntory was an opportunity to expand our product distribution, deliver our brand story and share the history and uniqueness of our Japanese whisky brands.' says Mory. In 2019, this partnership was tangibly celebrated in the U.S. in the form of Legent—a bourbon born from the collaborative efforts of seventh-generation Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe and Shinji Fukuyo, Suntory's longtime Chief Blender.
With over 20 years of true export experience under its belt, Suntory had every opportunity to do what many distilleries did during the market's concurrent growth period: greatly increase production. Distilleries all over the world have invested heavily in production equipment, infrastructure and staff—all in an attempt to meet insatiable consumer demand. More fermenters, more stills, more warehouses and round-the-clock production are way more common now than they were just a few years ago.
Suntory has invested in production as well, but not solely to make as much whisky as possible.
'Suntory wants to prioritize quality first. We've planned our production from a long-term point of view, while gradually improving the supply situation,' says Mory. 'Suntory adopts a very traditional method of whisky making.'
The still room at Yamazaki Distillery features direct fired stills.
Suntory Global Spirits
Japanese whisky is generally characterized by a light and delicate distillate, achieved through precise distillation techniques that, compared to other distilleries around the world, are more of a science than an art. 'Suntory revived a very traditional fermentation system and distillation process. I think that balance is critical to create a quality whisky,' says Mory.
Suntory's distilleries still use wooden fermentation tanks and direct fire pot stills, production techniques long forgotten across much of the global whisky industry. In 2023, during their 100th anniversary, they introduced floor malting at both Yamazaki and Hakushu as well as a new process to cultivate yeast at Hakushu.
That's not to say that increasing production isn't part of the long-term strategy. Mory continues, '[Over] the last 10 years, we have invested money to build a new warehouse. Last year, we built a new facility with floor malting and developed an R&D center to test our spirits.'
Suntory has warehouses at Yamazaki, Hakushu and their Ohmi Aging Cellar, and has expanded capacity across their storage locations multiple times over the last decade.
Suntory is also committed to sustainability and conservation, and has increased these efforts throughout the 21st century. 'Most of our products are made from water,' says Mory. 'We spend a lot of water, so we are investing in water.'
Suntory launched their "Natural Water Sanctuary" program in 2003. These conservation areas around their plants recharge more than double the groundwater used by their Japanese facilities. Suntory aims to become net water positive by 2050, meaning they will cultivate more water worldwide than their plants consume.
In 2024, Suntory announced another breakthrough in an effort to decarbonize its whisky manufacturing, with a successful trial of direct-fired distillation at Yamazaki using 100% hydrogen instead of conventional natural gas.
'We spent a lot of money to develop [this] new distillation system,' says Mory. The company plans to first bring this technology online at commercial scale at Hakushu distillery, with expanded implementation across their facilities as their final goal.
The ascent of Japanese whisky on the world's stage came with an unfortunate side effect: a more deceptive counterpart masquerading under the same name.
Hakushu Distillery
Suntory Global Spirits
As a domestic product, Japanese whisky was largely self-regulated, with the understanding that the basic concepts of whisky classification in other countries should also apply in Japan. Under these unwritten rules, single malt Japanese whisky was understood to be made at a single distillery from 100% malted barley—distilled, aged and bottled in Japan. Similarly, blended Japanese whisky was to be made from a combination of malt and grain whiskies sourced from multiple distilleries.
By the middle of the 2010s, however, Japanese whisky had become so popular that some spirits producers decided to skirt some (or in some cases, all) of these assumed production requirements. Their main target? A relatively unassuming U.S. market. Store shelves became flooded with unknown products that looked the part claiming to be 'Japanese whisky.' (I explored the concept of 'fake' Japanese whisky in depth in 2024.) Many of these bottles are are actually shochu labeled as 'single grain whisky.' Worse still, other bottles contained whisky that wasn't made in Japan at all.
'We want to protect and maintain our reputation and the integrity of Japanese whisky rather than our market share,' says Mory.
Casks of Yamazaki whisky aging in a Suntory warehouse.
Suntory Global Spirits
Suntory is a member of the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA), which established guidelines in 2021 to standardize Japanese whisky's production requirements. These standards officially took effect in April 2024, but they aren't protected by the Japanese government or industry-wide oversight. Without these protections, there are no enforceable penalties for breaking the rules defined by the JSLMA. That hasn't stopped the organization from trying to highlight whisky that follows their standard.
'The JSLMA has announced two initiatives,' says Mory. 'The first is [the development of] a trademark for Japanese whisky. Members will be allowed to use this logo on their label. Ideally, by the end of this year, we will be able to apply it to our products.'
The JSLMA's second initiative centers around broader legislative efforts to protect the category and to that end, Suntory is working with both the Japanese and U.S. governments to recognize the category legally.
Now in its second century of operation, Suntory is further diversifying its global marketing approach, continuing its focus on established markets while expanding into new regions with significant growth potential.
Suntory Toki is made for mixing and was designed with Tokyo's highball-centric culture in mind.
Suntory Global Spirits
'In an advanced whisky market, we want to focus more on quality and storytelling in the U.S. and key markets in Europe and Japan. Looking outside these markets, there's a huge opportunity to expand our business, especially in Asia and South America.'
With immense resources and capital at their disposal, Suntory has the ability to take their business in any direction the want. After a candid, informative conversation with Mory to learn about the long-term strategy for their portfolio, I expect Suntory to continue their reign as the torchbearer of the Japanese whisky category for many decades to come.
This interview was edited for clarity.
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