The Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. Ltd. is a producer of Japanese whisky headquartered in Tokyo. They have two malt whisky distilleries, one in Yoichi, Hokkaidō (established in 1934), and the other in Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Northern Honshū (established in 1969). The company owns the Ben Nevis Distillery (acquired in 1989) in Scotland.

 

The founder, Masataka Taketsuru, travelled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the process of distilling Scotch whisky first hand. He studied organic chemistry under Prof. T. S. Patterson[citation needed] at the University of Glasgow and malt whisky production at the Hazelburn distillery, near Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. He married Jessie Roberta ("Rita") Cowan, the daughter of a Glasgow doctor, and returned with her to Japan in 1920. In 1923 he joined Kotobukiya (currently Suntory) and helped to establish a distillery before starting Nikka in 1934.