WAIN99 · Japan
Japan and Taiwan: affection travels both ways.
Seasonal drinks, creative worlds and bar exchanges. Discover Japan through its connections with Taiwan.
Plants and seasons, across the counter.
At Tokyo’s Bar Benfiddich, Hiroyasu Kayama works with plants from his farm in Chichibu. The 2025 50 Best profile describes a curious approach to herbs, old tools and recipes. A conversation about the ingredients can be part of discovering a Japanese bar.
50 Best · Bar Benfiddich · 2025 ↗
Meet the makers →Taiwan and Japan, in numbers.
The online survey covered 1,520 Taiwan residents aged 20–80, excluding offshore islands, from December 27, 2024 to January 5, 2025. Separately, Taiwan’s Tourism Administration recorded 6,006,116 outbound trips from Taiwan to Japan in 2024, including repeat trips.
日本台湾交流協会 · 2025 ↗ / 交通部觀光署 · 2024 ↗
Get to know Taiwan →Taiwanese creativity on a Japanese bar counter.
The Peninsula Tokyo announced a 2024 guest programme with Ellen Y. Su from Taipei’s Indulge Experimental Bistro. In Taipei, the bar at Hotel Metropolitan Premier Taipei announced a cocktail-and-food pairing created with The Tokyo Station Hotel, offered for a limited period until October 9, 2026. It is an example of a Tokyo hotel’s recipes being introduced at a bar in Taipei.
The Peninsula Tokyo · 2024 ↗ / Hotel Metropolitan Premier Taipei · 2026 ↗
Create a story. Find someone who loves it.
Japan’s Comic Market connects creators and fans. At Taiwan’s 2025 Comic Exhibition, signing sessions with artists from both places were also announced. Discovering a shared favourite gives another city a familiar face. WAIN99 introduces non-alcoholic syrups and everyday goods from its IP collaborations.
Comic Market · C106 · 2025 ↗ / CCPA · 漫畫博覽會 · 2025 ↗
Explore the stories →VTuber voices cross languages.
Meet Mori Calliope through music and streams. Her hololive production profile lists a September 12, 2020 debut and the hololive -Myth- unit. Alongside voices from Taiwan, this is an entry into future features on creators and their work.
hololive production · Mori Calliope ↗ / Springfish Studio · 春魚創意 ↗
From Yokohama to Taiwan: the WAIN99 story.
WAIN99 was founded in Yokohama on May 13, 2019, and expanded with its directly operated Taiwan shop 小九屋 in 2025. Japanese makers, European drinks and IP collaborations connect everyday tastes and stories across Japan and Taiwan.
Read the WAIN99 story →Why alcohol affects people differently: ALDH2.
Alcohol becomes acetaldehyde, then acetate. ALDH2 helps with the second step. Reduced or inactive ALDH2 occurs in people in both Japan and Taiwan; nationality alone cannot determine someone’s response.
Japan’s health ministry describes regional variation. Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration reports flushing in nearly half its population; this is not a like-for-like measurement comparing enzyme activity across the two places. Flushing or a racing heart is not evidence of efficient metabolism. How well ALDH2 works depends on the gene type inherited from your parents, and drinking to get used to alcohol does not change it. If you flush easily, please do not push yourself to drink. For the effects on health, see the public guidance below.
Photo credits
Justin Taylor · CC BY 2.0 · Display crop