In the eyes of many spirits fans, Scotch is to fine whisky as Champagne is to fine wine—the indisputable best. Yet over the last few years, whisky connoisseurs have become increasingly enamored with whiskies from Japan, many of them similar to single-malt Scotches in their methods and composition, but with a character all their own.

The history of whisky in Japan stretches back a century, and does find its roots in Scotch, in particular. Its pioneer, a Japanese man by the name of Masataka Taketsuru, journeyed to Scotland in 1918 to learn the trade. After apprenticing at three distilleries, he returned to Japan as the master distiller for the Suntory company in 1923, eventually beginning distillation in his own enterprise, which would come to be called Nikka, in 1936. (Today, Nikka and Suntory remain the two major names in the industry.)

But decades elapsed before the spirit took off. In the United States, the demand for Japanese whisky kicked off when certain prized bottles began to earn international acclaim. In 2001, Whisky Magazine honored Nikka’s 10-Year Yoichi as its “Best of the Best.” Other awards ensued, and the spirit drew greater attention still when Suntory’s Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013, remarkably, beat out all other nations and was named the world’s best whisky by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible in 2015.

Whisky better than Scotch? Spirits specialists across the world took note. Exports to the US exploded, growing by more than 1000% in just five years. (Japanese whiskies continue to reign today, with Nikka’s Taketsuru Pure Malt 17-Year taking the title of “World’s Best Blended Malt,” and Suntory’s Hakushu 25 Year Old winning “World’s Best Single Malt,” at the 2018 World Whiskies Awards just a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Japanese whisky got a boost in the nation itself, particularly in the case of Nikka, thanks to an unexpected source: Pop culture, not the whisky cognoscenti. “In 2014, Japan’s government-owned broadcasting company NHK started the TV series Massan,” explains Naoki Tomoyoshi, international sales chief of Nikka Whisky.

“It was a soap opera based on the story of Nikka’s founder Masataka Taketsuru, and his wife Rita,” who followed Taketsuru to Japan from Scotland—a rare cross-cultural relationship in the 1920s. “The show quickly attracted a lot of [attention in Japan] and we experienced a tremendous spike in domestic demand.”