Whisky is officially alive and well in Japan. Any possible doubts there might previously have been were dispelled at Tokyo Big Sight on Sunday 18th February when more than 3,600 people braved the weather and the Tokyo Marathon crowds to attend the seventh Whisky Magazine Live! in Tokyo.

The event followed a similar format to last year with the tasting room and main stage activities running concurrently with a programme of 21 masterclasses. It is the number and intensity of the classes that differentiates Tokyo from other Lives around the world; the thirst for the whiskies is matched by a thirst for knowledge and a desire to meet the men and women behind the marketing. The classes have a capacity of 120 people and the majority were fully booked well before the day.

Anew departure this year was the Jura Jazz Club. Hosted by master blender Richard Paterson, this melodic blend of tasting notes and musical notes sought to match the whiskies of Jura with the music of the “Bison Katayama Trio” (all four of them).

Suntory completely revamped their booth area from last year, with a fantastic walk-in display of both its Japanese and Scotch offerings. Visitors were really able to feel a part of the exhibition as they mixed and chatted with the many production staff and Suntory distillery ladies.

Both Nikka and Diageo’s booths were also very striking and contributed to a feeling that whisky is really starting to take very seriously the efforts to attract new drinkers.

Indeed the number of first-timers was very apparent and many of the overseas panellers were pleasantly surprised by both the youthfulness of the audience and the high proportion of young ladies. The surge in interest in whisky during the past 18 months or so, centred on single malts, has been led by the young, with women playing their full part. Whisky has not so much re-invented itself in Japan; rather it has been discovered by a new generation of drinkers looking to challenge themselves both in terms of the wide variety of tastes available and also of the historical and cultural attributes that accompany a good dram.

Live! in Tokyo is very much about learning and tasting, but it also about having fun and enjoying whisky in a natural environment as well as the more sterile conditions of a classroom session. Chocolate and cigar booths contributed to this, as did the program of onstage entertainment, valiantly led by our very own Dave Broom. Talkshows, first with Charlie Maclean and Ulf Buxrud, and then Suntory’s Koshimizu-san and Nikka’s Satosan looked at the future for Japanese whisky from both an international and a domestic perspective; unsurprisingly both came to similarly positive conclusions.

Acharity auction, with rare bottlings very kindly donated by many of the exhibitors, raised more than £2,000 for Save-the-Children during the afternoon, and two lucky people will be attending Live in Glasgow later this year as guests of Whisky Magazine, having won the prize draw that includes air tickets, hotel accommodation and admission tickets.

Messrs. Paterson, Broom & MacLean were joined on stage towards the end of the day by a volunteer from the audience for the great Tokyo Marathon Blending Competition.

What ensued can only be described as organised chaos as Richard attempted to guide his three blending apprentices into producing a commemorative blend from the range of whiskies available to them, averaging by some stroke of fortune 26 years of age.

Eventually the finishing line came into view and with the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” echoing in their ears, (performed as never before by the Peaties) the band of happy but weary revellers made their way home from a day where whisky was very much the winner.

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