On the thirteenth of March, 2024, shochu from the Izu islands was granted a geographical indication under the name Tokyo Shimazake, Tokyo island sake. The designated area covers seven island municipalities: Oshima, Toshima, Niijima, Kozushima, Miyake, Hachijo, and Aogashima.

The defining condition of the whole thing is the koji. It must be made from barley, mugi-koji, which is unusual and is the technical fact the whole designation rests on. Three types are permitted under the standard: a sweet potato shochu using barley koji, a barley shochu using barley koji, and a blend of the two together.

This was the fifth geographical indication for shochu in Japan, after Iki, Kuma, Satsuma, and Ryukyu awamori, and it arrived eighteen years after the previous one. Nothing at all had been added to that list for a very long time before this.

What took a moment to register is the geography. These are bottles that will say Tokyo on them, made on islands that are two hundred kilometers and more from the city the name refers to, some of them a full day's boat ride out. The prefecture reaches much further into the Pacific than anyone who has only been to Shibuya would guess.