TOKYO — Tohru Itakura sipped whiskey from plastic cups as showgirls cavorted, bagpipes played and a little bit of Scotland came to Tokyo at a sampling for connoisseurs.

Itakura, a bar owner in Yokohama, south of the capital, finally chose a scotch — a little-known Japanese brand, Ichiro's Malt.

"The Japanese types deliver certain intricacies and aromas you can't find in (Scottish) scotch," said Itakura, 33, sporting a patchwork cap and goatee.

Japan is making a name for producing some of the world's best whiskey. Last year, Nikka Whisky Distilling Co.'s 20-year-old vintage, made at its facility in the northern town of Yoichi (population 21,000), was named the world's best single-malt by England-based Whisky magazine, in a blind tasting that also named rival Suntory Ltd.'s Hibiki brand the best blended whiskey.

Winning those awards was a "shot across the bow for the scotch industry," said David Kroll, chief executive of Japan-based whisky distributor Whisk-E Ltd. "Japanese companies are starting to export more and take it seriously."

Whiskey sales in Japan have fallen more than three-quarters since peaking in the early 1980s, and now account for less than 1 percent of the nation's alcohol revenue. The switch to wine and other alcoholic drinks began in the 1990s after domestic tax changes made whiskey more expensive. Nikka and Suntory, which together control 90 percent of the market, hope to make up for that decline by selling more overseas.

Suntory, which has about 70 percent of the domestic market, presently exports just 1 percent of its whiskey production, while Nikka, No. 2 in Japan, has a growing presence in Europe.

Nikka is owned by Tokyo-listed Asahi Breweries Ltd. The company makes its whiskey from Scottish barley, Japanese yeast and mountain-fed Yoichi water, aging most of its production in American white-oak barrels.

Nikka whiskies have hints of walnuts, truffles and vanilla, and their aromas are "woody" and "smoky," according to Ulf Buxrud, author of "Japanese Whisky: Facts, Figures and Taste."

By trademark law, only whiskey from Scotland can be labeled scotch. Nikka credits its own award win to coal-fired stills, a technique now largely abandoned in Scotland.

Nikka founder Masataka Taketsuru chose the Yoichi site on Hokkaido for its Scotland-like climate. Drastic changes in heat and humidity and the site's proximity to the ocean influence the whiskey's character, Aratani said.

Once a single malt is casked, distillers can do little but wait and let nature take its course, said Koichi Nishikawa, quality-control manager at Yoichi. The storage process is both science and guesswork, with different types of casks, and even shelf height in the warehouse, playing a part.

"After more than 70 years, there are things we understand about making whiskey and others that are still a mystery," said Yukio Aratani, general manager at the Yoichi distillery, a block of gray stone, red-roofed buildings amid the town's streets,

In Suntory's 86-year-old Yamazaki distillery in Kyoto, about 600 miles southwest of Yoichi, the whisky is aged in barrels from a type of Asian oak. The barrels infuse Yamazaki's whiskies with what's been described as a distinctive "old temple" aroma.

Japanese makers need to play up those differences if they're to scratch out a bigger presence overseas, Buxrud said.

"These components contribute to broadening the aroma and taste spectrum of whiskey," he said. "They are not copycats."

Notwithstanding the awards and aspirations to global markets, Japanese distillers still labor under the historical and creative shadow of Scotland, said David Wondrich, wine and spirits editor at Saveur magazine.

"They're starting to figure out what a Japanese-style whiskey is," Wondrich said. "Much of it is still imitation scotch."