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Where it comes from

Shochu is a southern drink. The seven prefectures of Kyushu and one island chain past the end of it account for very nearly all of it, and the bottles made anywhere else are interesting because they are exceptions.

Shimane, no bottles yet, 1 distilleryHiroshima, no bottles yet, 1 distilleryOkayama, no bottles yet, 5 distilleriesShiga, no bottles yet, 2 distilleriesNara, no bottles yet, 1 distilleryShizuoka, no bottles yet, 4 distilleriesGunma, no bottles yet, 1 distilleryTochigi, no bottles yet, 3 distilleriesChiba, no bottles yet, 2 distilleriesAkita, no bottles yet, 2 distilleriesIwate, no bottles yet, 1 distilleryFukushima, no bottles yet, 2 distilleriesFukuoka, 27 bottlesSaga, 9 bottlesNagasaki, 25 bottlesKumamoto, 43 bottlesOita, 23 bottlesMiyazaki, 84 bottlesKagoshima, 121 bottlesOkinawa, 110 bottlesYamaguchi, 1 bottleTottori, 2 bottlesEhime, 8 bottlesKochi, 12 bottlesTokushima, 4 bottlesHyogo, 1 bottleMie, 2 bottlesWakayama, 5 bottlesIshikawa, 3 bottlesNiigata, 6 bottlesGifu, 2 bottlesNagano, 2 bottlesAichi, 3 bottlesYamanashi, 3 bottlesIbaraki, 3 bottlesSaitama, 1 bottleTokyo, 4 bottlesKanagawa, 6 bottlesAomori, 4 bottlesYamagata, 4 bottlesHokkaido, 1 bottleKagoshima, 121 bottlesOkinawa, 110 bottlesMiyazaki, 84 bottlesKumamoto, 43 bottlesFukuoka, 27 bottlesNagasaki, 25 bottlesOita, 23 bottlesKochi, 12 bottlesSaga, 9 bottlesEhime, 8 bottlesKanagawa, 6 bottlesNiigata, 6 bottlesWakayama, 5 bottlesAomori, 4 bottlesTokushima, 4 bottlesTokyo, 4 bottlesYamagata, 4 bottlesAichi, 3 bottlesIbaraki, 3 bottlesIshikawa, 3 bottlesYamanashi, 3 bottlesGifu, 2 bottlesMie, 2 bottlesNagano, 2 bottlesTottori, 2 bottlesHokkaido, 1 bottleHyogo, 1 bottleSaitama, 1 bottleYamaguchi, 1 bottle
  • 15 or more
  • 5 to 14
  • 1 to 4
  • none

Listed as making shochu, but nothing from there has reached us yet

Amami is not a prefecture, so it has no tile of its own: the islands are part of Kagoshima and their bottles are counted inside it. Kokuto shochu may be made nowhere else in Japan, which is why it has a page of its own.Every prefecture is drawn, including the ones where we have found no shochu maker. The empty north is the point: this is a southern drink, and the map only says so if the rest of the country is on it. Blank means nobody is listed, which is not quite the same as nobody being there.Maker counts from the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association directory

The regions

Kagoshima

GI Satsuma

Sweet potato country, and where imo shochu comes from.

94 bottles · 34 producers · Imo (sweet potato)

Amami

The only place in Japan allowed to distil shochu from brown sugar.

27 bottles · 11 producers · Kokuto (brown sugar)

Miyazaki

The broadest range in Japan: sweet potato, barley, rice and buckwheat.

84 bottles · 20 producers · Imo (sweet potato), Mugi (barley), Kome (rice), Soba (buckwheat)

Oita

The barley shochu kingdom. Light, dry, and made at scale.

23 bottles · 7 producers · Mugi (barley)

Kumamoto

GI Kuma

Kuma rice shochu, made in one river basin for five hundred years.

43 bottles · 11 producers · Kome (rice)

Nagasaki and Iki

GI Iki

Iki island, where barley shochu was invented.

25 bottles · 7 producers · Mugi (barley)

Okinawa

GI Ryukyu

Awamori. Older than shochu, and made a different way.

110 bottles · 28 producers · Awamori

Fukuoka

Barley and sake lees, on the way north out of Kyushu.

27 bottles · 9 producers · Mugi (barley), Shochu

Saga

Barley grown, koji made and shochu distilled, all inside one prefecture.

9 bottles · 3 producers · Mugi (barley)

The Tokyo Islands

GI Tokyo Shimazake

Tokyo distils too, out on the Izu islands, with barley koji and a protected name of its own since 2024.

4 bottles · 3 producers · Imo (sweet potato), Mugi (barley)

Outside the south

Licensed in almost every prefecture. Barely made outside the south.

32 bottles · 18 producers · Shochu, Kome (rice)