The components of a blend may involve malt whisky from a number of distilleries, which may be owned by different companies.

Two of the most influential figures in the history of Japanese whisky are Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru.

Despite the strong opposition from the company's executives, Torii decided to build the first Japanese whisky distillery in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto, an area so famous for its excellent water that the legendary tea master Sen no Rikyū built his tearoom there.

Taketsuru had studied the art of distilling in Scotland, and brought this knowledge back to Japan in the early 1920s.

While working for Kotobukiya he played a key part in helping Torii establish the Yamazaki Distillery.

The first westerners to taste Japanese whisky were soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia who took shore leave in Hakodate in September 1918.

A brand called Queen George, described by one American as a "Scotch whisky made in Japan", was widely available.

In 1980, Suntory shipped 12.4 million cases of "Old" and achieved the world's highest annual sales volume for a single brand.

After reaching its peak in 1983, whisky consumption in Japan continued to decline, falling well behind Japanese beer, shōchū, and sake, and in 2008, only 20% of the 1983 level was consumed.

In addition, Japanese whisky began winning awards in international competitions, and exports outside of Japan increased.

It was the first time in 35 years that the Japanese government had granted a whisky production license to a new company.

[14] Japanese whiskies have been winning top honors in international competitions, notably Suntory.

On more than one occasion, the results have had Japanese single malts (particularly those of Nikka's Yoichi and Suntory's Yamazaki) scoring higher than their Scottish counterparts.

[19] In 2022, the Akkeshi distillery won the top prize in the World's Best Blended category and the Asaka distillery won the top prize in the World's Best Blended Malt category at a competition organized by Whisky Magazine.

One of those bottles sold for about $800,000 at a Hong Kong auction in August of that year; in August 2022, "Joker", a whisky made by Akuto Ichiro (ja:肥土伊知郎), which operates the Chichibu distillery, using Hanyu distillery's original whisky, sold for HK$500,000.

The prevalence of mixing whisky with soda or water is particularly attributed to the hot, muggy Japanese summer, hence the popularity of long drinks.