Founded in 2007 by Ichiro Akuto, grandson of the founder of the Hanyu distillery, Chichibu has been operational since February 2008. Equipped with two bespoke stills crafted in Scotland by Forsyths, it became the first Japanese single malt distillery established since Hakushu and was, at the time, the smallest and most discreet. The distillery initially released several very young expressions in 2008 under the “Newborn” range. Ichiro Akuto later unveiled his first fully matured whisky—a three-year-old cask-strength expression—at Whisky Live Paris in 2011. Today, the distillery bottles whiskies aged up to 12 years under the Chichibu and Ichiro’s Malt ranges and also safeguards the remaining stocks of Karuizawa, Kawasaki and Hanyu.