Imagine: you’re walking down a darkened alleyway in Tokyo. Illuminated signage on either side of the road reads out the names of mysterious establishments with names like Bar Sherlock, Nishiki, and Part 2. You take a chance on a door and enter a dimly lit, well-appointed, surprisingly small bar space. Behind the barfront stands a smartly-dressed, wizened Japanese bartender shaving a piece of clear ice into a handsome cube shape. You take a seat – one of only perhaps twelve in the whole bar – and ask for something local. With studied, well-practiced movements, your bartender pours just the right amount of spirits and mixers into their shaker. Less than a minute later, you take your first sip of a genuinely Japanese cocktail.
Japan is a country known for many, many things – and, in recent years, a top-shelf bar culture has emerged as just one more reason to want to make the trip to the archipelago. Many of the world’s most decorated bartenders hail from the country, and the culture of precision, presentation, and hospitality has seen cocktail aficionados placing more and more focus on Japan. And while you can get world-class versions of staple classics like martinis, sidecars, manhattans, and more in bars across the country, there’s also a host of locally-born Japanese cocktails to look out for.
Sadly, this sort of Tokyo nightlife experience is currently off the table for those stuck outside of the country. (Indeed, with curtailment on drinking establishment operating hours and alcohol sales during the pandemic, it’s less available even for those currently in Japan). So, whether you’re in Osaka or Australia, your best bet might be to try out these classics with your own home cocktail set. Let’s take a look at five of Japan’s favorite cocktails.

Table of Contents
ToggleJapanese Cocktail #1: Million Dollar (ミリオン・ダラー)

A great name to a sumptuously sweet, frothy cocktail. While the exact origins of the Million Dollar are up for debate, the drink remains one of the oldest cocktails recipes associated with Japan. Legend has it that the cocktail was created by Louis Eppinger, the German-American general manager of Yohokama’s Grand Hotel. Eppinger helped found Japanese cocktail culture from his arrival in Japan in 1889, even introducing another of the classics on this list. Eppinger disciple and “Japan’s first home-grown bar star” Hamada Shogo claimed the emigree thought up the drink while dreaming of a pile of cash. [1] While there are those who say that the drink originated in Singapore rather than Japan, it’s become a staple of the Japanese capital; in the 1920s, the drink was perhaps the go-to for stylish Tokyoites looking for something deliciously opulent. (The use of egg whites was regarded as especially luxurious.)
The Million Dollar’s popularity took off at Ginza’s Cafe Lion, one of the first four cocktail bars in Japan’s capital city. There, playwrights, authors, and the chic youth of 1920s and 1930s Japan drank it by the gallon. One magazine tagline has served to immortalize it amongst fellow Japanese cocktails:
「酒ならばコクテール(カクテル)、コクテールならばミリオンダラー・コクテール、雑誌ならばわが文藝春秋。」
“If it’s alcohol, make it a cocktail; if it’s a cocktail, make it a Million Dollar. And if it’s a magazine, make it the Bungei Shunjū.”
Recipe:
- 1oz/30ml Gin. (Beefeeter is often recommended.)
- 1 egg white
- 1/2oz/15ml sweet vermouth. (Some versions call for dry vermouth.)
- 2 bar spoons pineapple juice
- 1 bar spon grenadine
First, whip the egg white in your cocktail. Then, fill shaker with ice and add all other ingredients. Next, shake vigorously, pouring the resulting frothy liquid into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a wedge of pineapple if desired.
Cocktail #2: King’s Valley (キングス・バレイ)

The King’s Valley is the creation of the legendary Ueda Kazuo, inventor of the iconic hard shake technique. Perhaps the most emblematic old-guard bartender in Japan, Ueda opened the now-famed Ginza Tender in 1993, and has helped train in a generation of Japan’s great bartenders. In 1986, he entered a Scotch whiskey cocktail competition; this new creation took home first place. Cocktails using Scotch as their base are already rare enough, but this aperitif also takes on an additionally unique green color. (Made all the more unique for not containing any green ingredients.) When naming the cocktail, Ueda thought upon the green valleys of his base liquor’s homeland. Hence, King’s Valley. [2]

This Japanese cocktail is an intriguing mix of sweet and smokey and is worth trying for yourself.
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Recipe:
- 1 and 1/2oz/40ml Scotch Wiskey. (Non-Scotch whiskey is also used, although not at Bar Tender.)
- 2 bar spoons Cointreau.
- 2 bar spoons lime jiuce, preferably fresh.
- 1 bar spoon Blue Curaçao.
Combine your ingredients in your cocktail shaker, and perform an Ueda-style hard-shake. This style of violent cocktail shaking should produce small chunks of ice in the drink once strained into your cocktail glass. Want to know what a hard shake should look like? Here’s the master performing one himself.
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Cocktail #3: Bamboo (バンブー)

In the mood for something a little different? Then this century-old Eppinger classic might hit the spot. Much like the above Million Dollar, the Bamboo was introduced to Japan in the mid-Meiji era by the German-American manager of the Grand Hotel. A simple mix of only sherry, vermouth, and orange bitters, the drink is often touted as the most famous drink to come out of Japan. Alas, just as with the Million Dollar, this story has an additional wrinkle in it. In 1886, a decade before Eppinger disembarked at Yokohama port, the Western Kansas World published an article on a similar Bamboo cocktail taking New York by storm. Whether or not Eppinger is connected to this slightly older cocktail or not, the drink remains strongly associated with Japan. (Being called “bamboo” certainly helps with that.) With its dry vermouth, the drink should come off as crisp, sharp, and refreshing.
In Yokohama, the cocktail lounge at the Hotel New Grand (successor to Eppinger’s Grand Hotel following its destruction in the Great Kanto Earthquake) still serves this prestige drink.
Receipe
- 1 and 1/3oz/40ml sherry
- 2/3oz/20ml dry vermouth
- 1 dash orange bitters
Combine your ingredients in an ice-filled mixer. Stir, strain, and serve in a cocktail glass.
Cocktail #4: My Tokyo (マイ東京)

In 1964, Japan was newly emerging from two decades of physical and economic devastation following its defeat in WWII. The Tokyo Olympics of that year marked Japan’s re-entrance into the global community. Fancy cocktails had been far from the minds of most Japanese in the difficult post-war years (especially as alcohol sales were banned by the American occupation until 1949), with sparse ingredients and prohibitive costs. 1964, then, was the perfect year to indulge in some new high-class drinking. Suntory put on a cocktail contest to mark the decade-defining Olympics, and the winner was Ueda Yoshiaki, a bartender who was ironically based in Osaka. Ueda (not to be confused with the other Ueda discussed above) designed the cocktail, with its submerged cherry, to appear like the Japanese flag from above. A blurry Japanese flag, but still.
According to Nicholas Coldicott, the My Tokyo is rarely seen in the city for whom it takes its name. You can still find it served in the bars of Ueda Yoshiaki’s hometown of Osaka, however.
Recipe
- 1oz/30ml whiskey
- 2/3oz/20ml Grand Marnier
- 2 bar spoons lime juice, preferabbly fresh
- 1 marachino cherry
- Sugar, for rim
Apply sugar to rim of cocktail glass. Next, place cherry at bottom of empty glass. Pour remaining ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, and shake. Strain into cocktail glass.
Planning a trip to Japan? Get an authentic, interpreted experience from Unseen Japan Tours and see a side of the country others miss!

"Noah [at Unseen Japan] put together an itinerary that didn’t lock us in and we could travel at our own pace. In Tokyo, he guided us personally on a walking tour. Overall, he made our Japan trip an experience not to forget." - Kate and Simon S., Australia


We hate paywalls. Our content remains both free and fiercely independent. If you love the values we stand for and want to help us expand our coverage of Japan, consider a recurring or one-time donation to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund today.
Cocktail #5 White Lady

Admittedly, this isn’t technically a true “Japanese” cocktail. The White Lady originated elsewhere and is enjoyed all over the world. The drink even appears in the pages of works by Hemmingway. Nonetheless, it is said that one of the best White Ladies in the world is made right in Tokyo – by none other than Japan’s most internationally famous bartender, Ueno Hidetsugu. Ueno is the owner and head bartender of Bar High Five, ranked as one of the world’s 50 best bars. [3] A fluent English speaker, Ueno has been able to explicate Japanese bartending to the world. Sampling one of his White Ladies might just do the trick better than anything he could personally say, however.
Part of the secret to his version includes employing a hard shake, then rattling the shaker as you pour the drink into the glass. This is done in order to get some of the ice chunks inside of the drink itself that will melt in the mouth as imbibed.
Recipe
- 1 and 1/2oz/45ml gin
- 1/2oz/15ml Cointraeu
- 2/3oz/20ml fresh lemon juice
(While Ueno doesn’t use egg white, the ingredient is commonly added elsewhere to give the drink a thicker, frothier texture.)
Combine your ingredients into a shaker, perform a hard shake, then strain into a cocktail glass. Rattle the shaker as you strain to allow some ice chunks to enter into the glass.
We hope you enjoy your journey through the world of Japanese cocktails.
What to Read Next:
Sake Cocktails: A Modern Take on a Traditional Beverage
Sources:
[1] Coldicott, Nicholas. (2021). Tokyo Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the Eastern Capital. Appleseed Press. (Affiliate link; UJ earns a commission if you make a purchase)
[2] 山田平安堂. (2020). 日本生まれのカクテル|雪国、バンブー、キングス・バレイ. 平安堂ブログ.
[3] High Five. The World’s 50 Best Bars.
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