The company founder and chairman of Kotobukiya (the predecessor company of Suntory) wanted to produce a serious whisky and therefore hired Taketsuru Masataka (竹鶴 政孝), whom he appointed factory director of the Yamazaki distillery in 1924.

[1] He traveled to study at Glasgow University and learned how to make Scotch whisky on site.

He married a Scottish girl, Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan († 1961), who went to Japan with him in 1920.

[1] Under Taketsuru (* 1894) the production of the first whisky was completed in 1929, which was sold as shirofuda (白札, English white label).

Most notably, the 18-Year has earned six consecutive double gold medals at the San Francisco Spirits Competitions between 2008 and 2013.