Japan is a small but geographically amazing country: countless mountain ranges, a never-ending coastline, and limited but fertile farmland. When you factor in weather that ranges from nearly artic to 100% tropical, this permits farmers of different regions to specialize, and allocate their resources to raise crops of amazing quality and diversity.
With 47 prefectures, the only way to get ahead in producing shochu is to specialize in using the most abundant raw material at hand. Shochu production can be found in practically every prefecture in Japan. But when these locations are inspected more closely, a pattern begins to emerge--a pattern describing what class of shochu is produced where.
Honkaku Shochu
With a strong emphasis placed on flavor and aroma, Honkaku shochu production is far more concentrated. The southern region of Japan, particularly Kyushu, is boasted as the Honkaku shochu capital of Japan. Kyushu is renowned for its production of sweet potato shochu (imojochu) and rice shochu (komejochu). The following list of areas in Japan not only comprises the top 5 points of production, it also accounts for over 90% of all of Japan’s Honkaku production:
Kourui Shochu
The production of Kourui shochu can be found in nearly every region of Japan. Widespread production of rice and grain across the country, and a climate-friendly manufacturing process makes Kourui shochu the most region-friendly shochu. The top 5 points of production are as follows: