It was founded by the man who is considered the father of Japanese Whisky, Masataka Taketsuru in 1934. Taketsuru was born in Hiroshima in 1894. His family were sake producers and his interest in alcoholic beverages began soon as he graduated from High School in 1916 gaining technical skills in brewing.

In 1918 he traveled to Glascow, Scotland where he would study chemistry and learn the secrets of Scotch whisky distillation as he spent time in Longmorn and Hazelburn distilleries. In 1920 he returned to Japan with Jessie Roberta Cowan, or Rita, as his wife since they got married in 1920.

In 1923 Taketsuru entered the Kotobukiya Company (later known as Suntory) and was the director of the first Japanese Whisky distillery, Yamazaki, for the next ten years.

After leaving his position, in 1934 he was the founder of Dai Nippon Kaju Ltd and in 1936 he built a distillery in Hokkaido. The distillery’s name is Yoichi and by 1940 the first Nikka Whisky is launched.

In 1952, Dai Nippon Kaju was renamed Nikka Distilling Company.
After installing two Coffey stills in order to produce grain whisky, a second distillery was built in Sendai in 1969 named Miyagikyo.

As today Miyagikyo and Yoichi are the two distilleries responsible for their bottlings and for the Nikka blends as well. The Nikka Distilling Company has been owned by Asahi Group Holdings since 1954.