At The World’s 50 Best Bars 2026 awards, revealed in Milan earlier this month, the unstoppable momentum behind Asian cocktail culture was unmistakable. More than a dozen bars from prominent Asian cities earned coveted spots on the global Top 50 list, while Hong Kong’s Bar Leone secured the prestigious title of The World’s Best Bar for the second consecutive year. Shortly behind on the global stage, Milan’s own Moebius Milano claimed the No. 2 position, simultaneously capturing the title of Best Bar in Europe.
The general outcome of the awards reflected a broader, ongoing shift in what drinkers and hospitality industry leaders increasingly value on an international scale. In Japanese and broader Asian bar traditions, the cocktail is rarely considered as an isolated entity or a mere vehicle for alcohol. Instead, elements such as custom-carved ice, delicate glassware, precise temperature, exact texture, pacing, physical setting, and attentive service all merge to form a singular, cohesive guest experience. In this context, advanced technique is deployed not as a performative display of bartending ego or technical expertise, but as a genuine means of making every individual guest feel deeply considered and cared for.
Japanese cocktail culture has spent decades making an exquisite art out of these subtle details. Today, its foundational values of rigorous craftsmanship and thoughtful hospitality are rapidly becoming an influential vocabulary within the global bar world. The widespread appeal lies not only in a recognizable, minimalist Japanese aesthetic, but also in an approach that seamlessly marries discipline with ease, ritual with sociability, and bold innovation with a profound attentiveness to historic traditions.
During The World’s 50 Best Bars Week in October, Milan transformed into a temporary, vibrant meeting point for international bartenders, bar owners, and hospitality professionals. Across the city, guest shifts, masterclasses, exclusive dinners, and comparative tastings created an unusually energetic circuit of professional exchange. The week functioned simultaneously as an industry summit, a social occasion, and a high-profile international showcase for a profession that has steadily evolved to become more collaborative and globally connected than ever before.
Against this backdrop, at Ceresio 7, the renowned rooftop restaurant and bar in Milan, The House of Suntory presented Suntory Time—a specialized platform designed to explore the deep artistry, seasonal awareness, and distinctive hospitality that shape modern Japanese drinking culture. The comprehensive program brought flagship expressions like Roku Gin, Toki Japanese Whisky, and Haku Vodka into a series of thoughtful conversations and structured tastings designed around contemporary expressions of Japanese heritage. The overarching approach is firmly rooted in the meticulous attention to detail that characterizes Japanese bartending, stretching seamlessly from the sourcing of raw ingredients to the precise construction of a drink, its visual presentation, and the quality of human interaction between the bartender and the guest.
One of the week’s most closely watched appearances came from Shingo Gokan, the visionary Japanese bartender and entrepreneur behind New York City’s Sip & Guzzle and Hong Kong’s Gokan. Earlier in April, Sip & Guzzle was named No. 1 in North America’s 50 Best Bars 2026 and received the distinguished title of The Best Bar in North America. At Ceresio 7, Gokan brought his signature balance of technical rigor and approachable warmth to a high-profile guest shift centered squarely on Japanese ingredients and playful flavor profiles. Among the standout creations of the evening was his astonishing Omatsuri Banana, which ingeniously combined Toki Japanese Whisky, rich miso, dark chocolate, and caramelized banana—a dessert-adjacent cocktail that brought savory and sweet notes into harmonious equilibrium.
Later during the main awards ceremony held at the historic Palazzo del Ghiaccio, Gokan was honored with the Roku Industry Icon Award 2026. Sponsored by Roku Gin, the accolade recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding, lasting contribution to the global bar industry. In Gokan’s case, the award acknowledged an influence that extends far beyond the walls of any single establishment. Over his career, he has built an international reputation as a pioneering bartender, founder, mentor, and operator, helping to establish a sustainable model of Japanese-inspired hospitality that travels easily across diverse cities and cultural landscapes.
Earlier that same day, Julia Momose—chef, bartender, and the creative force behind Chicago’s revered Kumiko—led an intimate masterclass at Ceresio 7 as part of the Suntory Time programming. Her session explored the delicate ritual of the Toki Highball, utilizing a familiar and accessible format to illustrate the precision, restraint, and acute sensitivity to ingredients that define traditional Japanese cocktail-making. Momose was recognized on the 2026 global extended list of The World’s 50 Best Bars at No. 70, adding to an impressive list of accolades that includes Kumiko being named World’s Best Bar and Best U.S. Restaurant Bar at the 2025 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
For Momose, however, the professional work begins with a deeply personal memory. Her journey into the craft started years ago in a hidden speakeasy bar in Kyoto, where she experienced her first proper cocktail and witnessed the genuine magic of Japanese hospitality firsthand. That formative experience inspired her to create similar moving experiences for other people, eventually leading her toward the dream of opening her own establishment when she relocated to the United States.
She ultimately found the ideal canvas for that vision in Chicago. Finding a city where she felt immediately at home, Momose embraced its distinct atmosphere, people, and growing food-and-drink culture. At Kumiko, located in the city’s West Loop, she strives to bring together Japanese heritage, hyper-seasonal ingredients, and a genuine, unpretentious sense of hospitality. Momose describes her role as an ambassador for Japanese culture with a balanced mixture of personal pride and professional responsibility, noting her ongoing desire to challenge cultural stereotypes and share a tradition that celebrates individual talent, specialty products, and historical continuity.
That overarching ambition is most clearly expressed through the philosophy of omotenashi, a traditional Japanese approach to hospitality that Momose describes as careful listening and profound respect for the unique needs of each individual guest. Sometimes, she observes, that means providing physical space and peaceful silence; at other times, it calls for engaging conversation. With every guest who walks through the doors of her bar, her fundamental approach is to offer true omotenashi, connecting in a way that transcends simply serving a drink and instead shares the core values, stories, and poetry of her cultural background.
This interpersonal dimension represents perhaps the most consequential aspect of Japanese bar culture’s growing international relevance. Its profound influence is not merely a matter of an imported visual language—such as minimalist interiors, Japanese whiskies, or ceremonial ice carving—though those visual details remain undeniably compelling. Rather, it offers a sustainable model of care. The ultimate goal is to make the guest feel genuinely recognized and valued without transforming routine service into an ostentatious performance of attentiveness.
The broader Suntory portfolio gave that conceptual idea several distinct expressions throughout the week in Milan. Roku Gin takes its primary cues from shun, the traditional Japanese concept of enjoying ingredients at their absolute seasonal peak, utilizing carefully selected botanicals to give gin a distinctly Japanese perspective. Meanwhile, Toki Japanese Whisky represents the dynamic energy of contemporary Tokyo, successfully bridging Japanese whisky into modern, social drinking occasions. Haku Vodka, distilled entirely from 100% Japanese white rice, maintains a remarkably smooth flavor profile with soft, subtle sweetness intended to support individual expression within complex cocktails. The deep relationship between seasonality and sophisticated design is also visibly demonstrated in the Roku Sakura Bloom Edition, a limited-edition gin introduced to highlight the sakura season and the cherished Japanese custom of hanami, or flower viewing. Featuring a soft floral profile accented by a subtle saline note from blossom leaves, it stands as a clear example of how a seasonal cultural reference can evolve into both a distinct flavor idea and a compelling cultural proposition.
A concrete example of how Japanese drinking culture is firmly rooting itself within the European landscape is offered by Milan’s Ronin, an ambitious multi-level destination dedicated to nightlife experiences. The venue successfully brings together several distinct formats traditionally associated with Japanese social life: an izakaya and listening bar that serves drinks alongside carefully curated small dishes, an intimate cocktail bar featuring private karaoke rooms focused on Far Eastern mixology, and a quieter restaurant and cocktail lounge setting. The atmosphere is consistently vibrant, drawing crowds across different generations and making the act of drinking an integral part of a broader cultural ritual encompassing food, music, and late-night conviviality. Conceived by Italian entrepreneurs, this Japanese-style nightlife adventure is increasingly drawing the attention and admiration of hospitality operators across the continent.
The busy week of events in Milan suggested that the ongoing rise of Japanese and Asian bar culture reaches far beyond numerical rankings and competitive lists. It represents a fundamental, growing influence on how the international drinks world defines overall quality: pursuing technical precision without rigidity, embracing seasonality without mere nostalgia, and practicing hospitality that remains sensitive to the individual rather than performative for its own sake. At a moment when the world’s best bars are becoming increasingly international in their reference points, Japanese cocktail culture continues to offer a particularly resonant proposition—proving that the most memorable drink is not merely crafted with high skill, but served with enduring attention, warmth, and care.
