The 40 Best Bars in Japan
Japan's bars are counter bars first: a handful of seats, a bartender who hand-carves the ice, and sometimes no menu at all. The best bars in Japan start in Tokyo, where Hiroyasu Kayama's Bar Benfiddich in Nishi-Shinjuku builds its drinks and its own absinthe from herbs grown on his family's land in Chichibu and is No. 44 on The 50 Best Bars list for 2026. In Nara, Michito Kaneko's Lamp Bar, home of the 2015 World Class champion, has no menu and serves a Lamp Negroni with bitters made from local cypress; it was No. 20 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2022. Craftroom in Osaka, Ryu Fujii's six-seat counter two floors below ground in Umeda, reached No. 28 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2024. Yakoboku in Kumamoto, Shinya Koba's minimalist room in a former storehouse, works with shochu, sudachi and persimmon and was No. 25 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025. Plan for walk-ins: Lamp Bar takes no reservations, and Bee's Knees in Kyoto does not either. These are the forty we would start with.
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarBar Benfiddich
Hiroyasu Kayama grows his own botanicals on a farm in Tokigawa, Saitama and carries them into a ninth-floor Shinjuku bar where every cocktail begins with produce he harvested personally. Ranked No. 44 on The 50 Best Bars 2026 (No. 18 in 2025) and No. 9 on Asia's 50 Best Bars, earning Best Bar in Japan, Benfiddich operates as a farm-to-counter manifesto. Kayama crushes spices by hand in a brass mortar at the bar, distils ingredients in-house, and builds drinks that taste of specific seasons in specific Japanese soil. No other bar program on earth is this directly connected to the land. It sits at No. 62 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
9F Yamatoya Building, 1-13-7 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, TokyoDaily 19:00-01:00 (Closed Sun)Full profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTHotel BarVirtù
Head Bartender Keith Motsi runs the Four Seasons Tokyo's cocktail program at No. 48 on The 50 Best Bars 2026 (No. 45 in 2025), combining luxury hotel resources with a personal style shaped by years working across continents. The room delivers the polished service architecture that Four Seasons guests expect, but the drinks carry an edge, unexpected infusions, asymmetric flavor profiles, a willingness to challenge rather than merely comfort. Virtù won Tatler's bar award and sits at No. 18 on Asia's 50 Best. The hotel bar elevated into something more personal than institutional. It was a Top 4 finalist for Best International Hotel Bar at the 2026 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.
39F, Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo, 1-2-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, TokyoFull profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarThe Bellwood
Atsushi Suzuki, 2017 Chivas Masters champion, applies kaiseki principles to cocktail construction, building multi-course drink sequences that mirror the progression of a traditional Japanese meal. Ranked No. 100 on The 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026, after No. 48 in 2025, The Bellwood treats each sitting as a complete narrative: opening with something light and palate-cleansing, building through complexity, and closing with a drink that functions as dessert. Suzuki's Shibuya bar proves that the omakase format works as powerfully with spirits as it does with fish. It currently stands at No. 79 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
41-31 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0042Daily 18:00-02:00Full profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarThe SG Club
Shingo Gokan's Shibuya flagship spent six consecutive years on Asia's 50 Best Bars, and was No. 65 on The World's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2025, then No. 88 on The 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026. The split-level concept, Guzzle on the ground floor for casual highballs, Sip in the basement for precision cocktails, prefigured the dual-venue format that Gokan later exported to New York. The SG Club functions as both a neighborhood bar and an industry pilgrimage site, a combination that only the most generous operators manage to sustain. Gokan's hospitality philosophy starts and ends here.
1-7-8 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, TokyoSun-Thu 17:00-02:00, Fri-Sat 17:00-03:00Full profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarBar Trench
Rogerio Igarashi Vaz opened Bar Trench in Ebisu in 2010, continuing the absinthe lineage of Bar Tram while building something with broader ambitions: a social cocktail bar at heart, with a tightly curated three-cocktail absinthe section that nods to the venue's heritage without defining it. Ranked No. 74 on The 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026, after No. 94 on the 51-100 list in 2025, Bar Trench is a neighborhood room that draws regulars and pilgrims in equal measure, with signatures and classics built around Vaz's deep knowledge of his subject. The room carries the dark, atmospheric quality of a European apothecary, and the conversation across the bar runs as long as the menu invites it. It currently stands at No. 53 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
1-5-8 DIS Bld.102, Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0021Daily 18:00-02:00Full profile
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★ TOP 10ASIA'S 50 BESTHotel BarPunch Room Tokyo
A London gin palace concept transplanted to Ginza under the direction of Yasuhiro Kawakubo, Punch Room held No. 36 on Asia's 50 Best by centring its program on communal punch bowls built with Japanese spirits. The format encourages sharing in a city where solo drinking dominates, and the fusion of British punch tradition with Japanese distillation, rice shochu, craft sake, domestic gin, creates something that belongs to neither culture entirely. The room glows with warmth and candlelight. The bar holds No. 23 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026.
2F The Tokyo EDITION, 2-8-13 Ginza, Chuo-ku, TokyoTue-Thu 18:00-00:00, Fri-Sat 18:00-02:00, Sun-Mon closedFull profile
★ TOP 10ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarBar Libre
Yujiro Kiyosaki runs an Ikebukuro program built on advanced technique, liquid nitrogen, barrel aging, centrifugal clarification, that entered Asia's 50 Best at No. 49 as a new entry in 2025. The cocktails showcase process without fetishising it: every technological intervention serves a flavor goal rather than a visual one. Bar Libre represents the technical wing of Tokyo's bar scene, where science and taste converge under the watch of a bartender who treats innovation as a daily practice rather than a marketing strategy. Tokyo's bartenders approach their craft with an intensity that borders on devotion, and the result is a city where a Tuesday night drink at a Ginza counter can rank among the best experiences of your year. The scene needs no validation from abroad, but it earns it anyway. Go before the secret gets louder. It currently stands at No. 39 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026.
B1F, 3-25-8 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima City, TokyoDaily 18:00-02:00Full profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarBar High Five
Hidetsugu Ueno operates without a menu, guests describe a mood, a flavor, a memory, and Ueno constructs a drink in response. Granted Heering Legend status by the global industry, this Ginza institution represents the apex of Japanese bartending's conversational tradition. Ueno's ice carving alone justifies the visit: a single block transformed into a perfect diamond through hand cuts that take minutes and waste nothing. Bar High Five does not chase rankings. Rankings chase it.
Efflore Ginza5 Bldg. BF, 5-4-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku, 104-0061Mon-Sat 17:00-01:00 (last entry 00:00); closed Sundays and national holidaysFull profile
★ TOP 10ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarTokyo Confidential
Holly Graham, drinks journalist turned bar owner, built this Azabu-Jūban venue around a bar top carved from reclaimed shrine wood, and the material sets the tone for a program rooted in Japanese cultural heritage reinterpreted through a global lens. Ranked No. 70 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2025, Tokyo Confidential channels Graham's editorial eye into cocktail curation: every drink tells a story, every ingredient carries context. The bar functions as both a drinking destination and an education in Japanese drinking culture.
9F, THE V CITY PLACE, 1-6-1 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, TokyoMon-Sat 18:00-02:00, Sun 18:00-00:00Full profile
★ TOP 1050 BESTCocktail BarBar Orchard Ginza
Bar Orchard Ginza has no menu: seasonal fruit sits piled on the counter, you point at what looks good, and owner Takuo Miyanohara, often working solo, builds a bespoke drink around it. The fruit-first approach earned it No.28 on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2019.
6-5-16 Ginza, Sanraku Building 7F, Chuo Ward, Tokyo 104-0061Full profile
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarYakoboku
A 15-seat bar in central Kumamoto, fronted by a cypress wall that rotates open onto the street and finished inside in plain wood. Owner Shinya Koba builds the list around Kyushu produce, including house-made amaro, regional citrus and shochu, in cocktails such as a Kyushu Old Fashioned made with haze tree wax and a shochu-based riff on the espresso martini. The name refers to the night-blooming jasmine. The bar holds No. 59 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
1F, 5-21 Minamitsuboi-machi, Chuo-ku, 860-0848Full profile
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarCraftroom
Craftroom is a six-seat counter bar in the basement of the Osaka Ekimae Daiichi Building in Umeda, behind a concealed entrance. It serves premium cocktails and whisky in an elegant room, with seasonal pies alongside the drinks.
Osaka Ekimae Daiichi Building B2-70, 1-3-1 Umeda, Kita Ward, OsakaSun closed; Mon-Sat 16:00-00:00Full profile
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarLamp Bar
Founded by Michito Kaneko, who won the Diageo Reserve World Class global bartender competition in 2015. The ground-floor room in the Iseya Building holds an extensive back bar and a replica copper pot still, and the bar works without a printed menu, building drinks to each guest's preferences and drawing on Japanese and regional ingredients. The bar holds No. 94 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
1F Iseya Building, 26 Tsunofuri-cho, 630-8224Full profile- Bar NayutaASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Bar Nayuta
Bar Nayuta works in tribute to the golden age of cocktail making, when bartenders compounded their own ingredients, so it makes its own infusions, bitters and liqueurs and rebuilds the classics in its own idiom. The bar sits on the fifth floor of the Mario Building in Nishi-Shinsaibashi, marked by an occult-looking symbol at the entrance, and bottles its own cocktail bitters.
中央区西心斎橋1-6-17, OsakaDaily 17:00-03:00Full profile - Bee's KneesASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Bee's Knees
Kyoto cocktail bar on Asia's 50 Best Bars every year from 2020 to 2023, and on the 51-100 list in 2024 and 2025.
中京区木屋町四条上ル紙屋町364, KyotoFull profile 
ASIA'S 50 BESTHotel BarThe Bar at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo
The hotel's cocktail bar on the 45th floor of Tokyo Midtown, finished in marble and dark wood with floor-to-ceiling windows over the city. Head bartender Kentaro Wada, the 2018 Chivas Masters Japan champion, and his team build their drinks on micro-seasonal produce sourced directly from farmers and producers across Japan. The current menu, ORIGAMI, runs through January 2027 with six cocktails inspired by the art of paper folding, among them Kochō, a Vesper reworked with sencha and rose from Okuizumo. The bar also keeps wine, sake and a collection of rare Japanese whiskies, with live music every afternoon and evening. It is No. 75 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2026.
9-7-1 Akasaka, Tokyo Midtown 45F, 107-6245Mon-Thu 15:00-23:30; Fri and days before public holidays 15:00-00:00; Sat 12:00-00:00; Sun 12:00-23:30Full profile
Hotel BarCanes & Tales
Canes & Tales is a destination cocktail bar at the Waldorf Astoria Osaka - a glamorous escape into a bygone era, inspired by the 1930s Golden Age of Jazz and the bars of that time, evoking a world of intriguing timeless narratives. In contrast to the rest of the bright and airy aesthetics of the property, the intimate 47-seat bar is tucked behind an alluring dark green door at the end of a dimly-lit corridor subtly embellished with the bar’s signature Canes & Tales iconography.
5-54 Ofukacho, KitaFull profile- Gold Bar at EDITIONASIA'S 50 BESTHotel Bar
Gold Bar at EDITION
'Modern Days of Golden Age' is the brief at Gold Bar: century-old classics elevated with Japanese flavors, poured in an 83-seat room of charred yakisugi timber and gold leaf at The Tokyo EDITION Toranomon. DJs play Thursday to Saturday from 8:30pm, and guest-bartender takeovers are a regular fixture. Signatures include the Grand Manhattan (¥3,200) and a Tequila Martini built on Don Julio 1942 (¥3,500).
Order thisGrand ManhattanL1 The Tokyo EDITION Toranomon, 4-1-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001Tue-Thu 18:00-01:00, Fri-Sat 18:00-02:00, closed Sun-MonFull profile - Memento MoriASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Memento Mori
Memento Mori is a cacao and botanical cocktail bar on the third floor of the Toranomon Hills Business Tower, led by bartender Shuzo Nagumo. The name is the Latin reminder that we must all die, and the bar honors the fruit, plants and flowers it uses by wasting as little as possible. Cacao appears in every form, from pulp and husk to nibs, cacao butter and couverture, and the team works with fair-trade suppliers such as Cacao Hunters that source from growers in Colombia. The Bean to Glass course opens with the Cacao Pulp Fizz, served in a cacao pod, and chocolate treats are paired with the drinks. It was No. 41 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2022.
Toranomon Hills Business Tower 3F, 1-17-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-6403Mon-Fri 16:00-23:00, Sat-Sun 14:00-23:00Full profile - Gen Yamamoto50 BESTCocktail Bar
Gen Yamamoto
Eight seats and no drinks list: Gen Yamamoto serves only omakase cocktail tasting courses, seven, six or five drinks (¥11,000, ¥10,000, ¥8,800), composed daily around seasonal produce from Japanese farms. Reservations are taken by phone only, up to seven days ahead.
1F Anniversary Building, 1-6-4 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0045Tue-Sat 15:00-22:30, closed Sun-MonFull profile - FolkloreASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Folklore
Folklore sits in Hibiya OKUROJI and comes from Spirits & Sharing, the Tokyo group behind Mixology Salon and Memento Mori. It calls itself a sake, shochu and mixology cocktail bar: Japanese sake, tea, shochu and domestic spirits are blended with Western spirits, and the vessels and ingredients reflect the terroir of the regions they come from. Past examples include a shochu martini infused with blue cheese brandy and a margarita made with two types of sake alongside tequila. Fumihiko Sano Studio designed the austere room with historic materials, including shingles and rafters from temples in Nagano and Yamagata. Seats can be booked online. It was No. 74 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2024.
Hibiya OKUROJI G27, 1-7-1 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0011Mon-Fri 16:00-23:00, Sat-Sun 14:00-23:00Full profile 
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarStar Bar
Star Bar is Ginza classicism at its most exacting: owner Hisashi Kishi, chairman of the Japan Bartenders Association and an IBA world champion, carves his 'NINJA ICE' by hand and holds the room to the same standard. The original of the STAR BAR group, it placed No.50 on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2021. Cover charge ¥1,100.
B1F MODERNS GINZA, 1-5-13 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061Full profile- Bvlgari Ginza BarASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Bvlgari Ginza Bar
On the 10th floor of the Bvlgari Ginza Tower, the Bvlgari Ginza Bar relaunched its cocktail program in 2025 with 'Proverbi', ten cocktails and four mocktails each built on an Italian proverb, all ¥3,400, developed under the guidance of chef Niko Romito. Signatures include L'Intenditore (Vida mezcal, lacto-fermented tomato, Aperol, sparkling wine) and La Forza (Ki No Bi gin, yuzu sake, basil, Aperol).
Order thisL'IntenditoreVida mezcal, lacto-fermented tomato, Aperol, sparkling wine10F Bvlgari Ginza Tower, 2-7-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061Sun-Wed 17:00-23:00, Thu-Sat 17:00-01:00Full profile 
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarBar Rocking Chair
Tucked so far into Kyoto's back lanes that taxi drivers can balk at the address, Bar Rocking Chair sits on Gokomachi-dori, south of Bukkoji, in Shimogyo-ku. Owner-bartender Kenji Tsubokura, whom Time Out counts among Japan's top bartenders, runs a snug, dim, wood-paneled room for fewer than 30 guests, four of them in rocking chairs. There is no menu: the team asks what you like and builds a bespoke drink, often around Japanese ingredients, with bar snacks on the side. Reservations are generally not taken, apart from phone bookings for the 5 pm to 6 pm slot, taken from the beginning of every month, and it is closed on Tuesdays. The bar was No. 81 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2023.
434-2 Tachibanacho, Shimogyo-Ku, KyotoFull profile- IshinohanaASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Ishinohana
Ishinohana is a basement cocktail bar a minute's walk from Shibuya Station, opened in 2003 by owner-bartender Shinobu Ishigaki. Ishigaki won the senior category of the Bacardi Martini Grand Prix in Turin in 2005, and the bar is known for seasonal cocktails built on fresh fruit and herbs, with new recommendations every month; October 2026 brought a Verveine Collins and a fig, pistachio and Pernod daiquiri. The menu also runs house variations on the Old Fashioned, Negroni and Bloody Mary, such as a Japanese Old Fashioned with shiitake-infused whisky, maple syrup and umami bitters. Pizzas, cheese and small plates are served too. It was No. 56 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2021.
B1, 3-6-2 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002Mon-Tue 17:00-00:00, Wed-Thu closed, Fri-Sat 17:00-00:00, Sun 16:00-23:00Full profile - Bar LandscapeASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Bar Landscape
Bar Landscape opened in April 2019 in a basement in Ginza's sixth block, run by husband-and-wife bartenders Kazuma and Tamiko Matsuo. The name stands for the bond between a place and the people who live there, and the couple travel to the regions where spirits and fruit are produced to bring that story back to the counter. Kazuma spent twelve and a half years at Little Smith and won Japan's national bartender skills competition in 2013; Tamiko trained under Takao Mori at Blossom and won the same title in 2016. The short list pairs classics such as the Gimlet and Martini with fresh fruit cocktails. It was No. 57 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2021.
Sanwa Ginza Bldg. B1, 6-4-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061Mon-Sat 16:00-00:00, Sun and holidays closedFull profile - Mixology HeritageASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Mixology Heritage
Mixology Heritage opened in Hibiya OKUROJI in 2020 as the classic cocktail bar of Spirits & Sharing, the group behind Mixology Salon. Its motto, Beyond the Classic, means revisiting the canon of classic cocktails and then pushing past it. Vintage whiskies and spirits line the shelves behind the bar, and old bottles go into drinks such as the Ultimate Martini, made with gin from as far back as the 1950s and vermouth from the 1970s. Cocktails are also aged in house, maturing in jars on the back bar. The room has a pressed metal ceiling, a rustic wooden bar top and Renaissance paintings. It was No. 60 on the Asia's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in 2021.
Hibiya OKUROJI G31, 1-7-1 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0011Mon-Fri 16:00-23:00, Sat-Sun and holidays 15:00-23:00Full profile - Mixology Salon GinzaASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail Bar
Mixology Salon Ginza
Mixology Salon sits on the 13th floor of the Ginza Six shopping complex, a bar built around tea and cocktails by Shuzo Nagumo. The specialty is the teatail: matcha, gyokuro, hojicha and other carefully chosen Japanese teas go into tea-infused spirits such as hojicha bourbon and buckwheat tea vodka. First-timers can take a teatail course of three to five drinks built around one tea, or order the Green Tea Fashioned. The small, minimal room seats about eight and opens from early afternoon. The group has since added branches in Singapore and Kyoto and, in September 2026, a larger Tokyo flagship in Yaesu. It made Asia's 50 Best Bars twice, highest at No. 40 in 2018, and was on the 51-100 list in 2021.
GINZA SIX 13F, 6-10-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061Daily 13:00-23:00Full profile 
ASIA'S 50 BESTCocktail BarLiquid Factory
A cocktail bar run by Liquid Works, a Japanese bar-equipment and bartender-apparel company, which also uses the space as a development workshop and retail point for its tools. The room is fitted out in an industrial style and doubles as a place where bartenders test new drinks and ingredients. It trades through the day serving coffee, milkshakes and gin and tonic, switching to full cocktail service from 5pm.
42-12 Udagawacho, SALON Shibuya 1F, Room 101, 150-0042Tue-Sun 16:00-00:00 Mon ClosedFull profile- Royal BarASIA'S 50 BESTHotel Bar
Royal Bar
Royal Bar is the classic bar of Palace Hotel Tokyo in Marunouchi, set behind a single door off the main lobby. Its counter is a careful restoration of the one in the first Royal Bar, which opened at the hotel in 1961, and behind which the bar's first chief bartender, nicknamed Mr. Martini, worked for years. The alcove is all dark wood, deep leather and plush velvet, and it draws serious drinkers of top-shelf spirits to its 25 seats. Today's chief bartender, Manabu Ohtake, took Japan's Diageo Reserve World Class title in 2011 and was then named Bartender of the Year in the international competition.
Lobby Level, Palace Hotel Tokyo, 1-1-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005Daily 15:00-24:00 (last order 23:30)Full profile 
Cocktail BarBible Club Osaka
Bible Club Osaka is a basement cocktail bar on Shinsaibashisuji that sets out to recreate a pre-Prohibition American room down to the detail, from the antique crystal drinkware to the fittings, so that a guest stepping in is meant to land somewhere between the 1800s and the turn of the century. The bar builds its cocktails from the freshest ingredients and the finest spirits it can get, and garnishes them to the same standard. It seats thirty eight, charges eight hundred yen a head, and takes its last order at half past midnight. It is the sister bar of the Bible Club in Portland, Oregon, the Prohibition-era room that gave it its name and which this directory also lists.
B1F, 2-1-11 Shinsaibashisuji, Chuo-ku, OsakaThu-Tue 18:00-01:00; Wed closedFull profile
Cocktail BarNokishita 711
Nokishita 711 calls what it does liquid cuisine: cocktails made by extracting liquid from every kind of ingredient, meat, fish, insect and plant included. It is reservation only, with seatings at three, six and nine, and serves a tasting menu rather than a list, an omakase pairing course and a shorter trial course, in small, low-alcohol pours, with non-alcoholic and vegan versions on offer.
Atsumari B, 235 Sendo-cho (船頭町235), Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8019Reservation only, seatings 15:00, 18:00 and 21:00Full profile
Hotel BarThe Society
The cocktail bar of Park Hotel Tokyo, on the 25th floor of the Shiodome Media Tower. It seats about ten guests at the counter and focuses on cocktails built around Japanese and imported botanicals, seasonal fruit and sake, alongside a list of roughly 100 Scottish single malts. The room looks out over the city and is open in the evenings only.
1-7-1 Higashi-Shimbashi, Shiodome Media Tower 25F, 105-7227Daily 17:00-23:00 (food last order 22:00, drinks 22:30)Full profile- Bar CentifoliaCocktail Bar
Bar Centifolia
Bar Centifolia opened in Azabu-Juban in 2018 under owner-bartender Yuzo Komai, who came to Tokyo from Fukuoka, and takes its name from the hundred-petal Centifolia rose. The small room is fitted out in wood and marble, with a collection of more than 100 antique glasses on the shelves behind the bar, and Komai makes both classics and house specials. It works by reservation only, with a fee for table or counter seats and drinks from 4,000 yen.
6F, 1-6-5 Azabu-Juban, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0045Mon-Tue 20:30-03:00, Thu-Sat 20:30-03:00, closed Wed and SunFull profile - Bar K6Whiskey Bar
Bar K6
Bar K6 is on the second floor of the Val's Building on Kiyamachi-dori at Nijo, a bar its owner runs alongside a standing sake bar, KASK, and a wine cave, Cave de K, in the same family. The site is a weekly bartender's diary, mojito season in July, a Port Charlotte 2001 for early summer, and it states the essentials plainly: the bar is closed on Monday and Tuesday, and KASK is open every day.
Val's Building 2F, 481 Higashiikesu-cho (木屋町二条東入ル), Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto 604-0922Wed-Sun, Mon-Tue closedFull profile - Ista Coffee ElementsCocktail Bar
Ista Coffee Elements
Ista Coffee Elements is an eight-seat room near Sakaisuji-Hommachi station in the business district of central Osaka, where everything turns on coffee. Owner and bartender Fumiaki Nozato is a world coffee cocktail champion, and the beans are roasted in house on a micro-roaster tucked away at the end of the narrow bar before they become the base of the drinks. It works as a coffee shop pulling espresso and as a cocktail bar with one of the most cohesive lists in the city. The Maillard Banana Shake builds on banana, rum, milk, chocolate and espresso; the Element, a competition winner, sets coffee against brandy, rose, raspberry, cream and Campari. A section called Coffee Tree Cocktails reaches past the bean to the cherries, the flowers and the leaves.
Adorable Building 1F, 2-6-1 Kitakuhoboji-cho, Chuo-ku, OsakaFull profile - Mandarin BarHotel Bar
Mandarin Bar
Mandarin Bar is the cocktail bar of Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, on the hotel's 37th floor in the historic Nihonbashi district, with views high above Tokyo. The room is designed in a modern Japanese style, with a calm, understated luxury meant as a retreat from the pace of the city, and the hotel says it takes its character from the neighborhood around it. The menu pairs signature cocktails, made with attention to freshness and precision, with a considered list of mocktails for guests who are not drinking. The current menu includes a Sakura Negroni built on a cherry blossom vermouth.
37F, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, 2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-8328Sun-Thu 15:00-24:00; Fri-Sat 15:00-01:00Full profile - New York BarHotel Bar
New York Bar
The bar of Park Hyatt Tokyo, on the 52nd floor of Shinjuku Park Tower, adjoining New York Grill. It is known for nightly live jazz, floor-to-ceiling city views and large murals by the Italian artist Valerio Adami inspired by Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall. The hotel reopened in December 2025 after a 19-month renovation.
3-7-1-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku Park Tower 52F, 163-1055Daily 17:00-00:00Full profile - Old Imperial BarHotel Bar
Old Imperial Bar
Old Imperial Bar is the main bar of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, on the mezzanine floor of the hotel's Main Building in Hibiya, and the hotel calls it a Tokyo institution. The room pays tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect of the hotel's 1923 building, and it holds stone and original relics taken from that art deco structure. Dark wood and leather throughout give it the air of a gentlemen's club, and the bar offers an Akkeshi single malt and an engraved Henri Giraud Champagne bottle made for the hotel's 135th anniversary. There are 72 seats, and smoking is not allowed anywhere in the room.
Main Building MF, Imperial Hotel Tokyo, 1-1-1 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8558Daily 11:30-24:00 (last order 23:30)Full profile - Peter: The BarHotel Bar
Peter: The Bar
Peter: The Bar sits on the 24th floor of The Peninsula Tokyo, a sleek, modern room with wide views across Ginza and Hibiya Park. Head mixologist Mari Kamata has led it since it opened in September 2007; in 2009 she won the Diageo World Class competition in Japan and then placed second worldwide. Her Journey of Japan menu works with regional ingredients such as Shikoku yuzu and Kyushu shochu, and the signature Tokyo Joe honors the first Hollywood film shot in post-war Japan, which starred Humphrey Bogart. A Zero-Proof list offers eight alcohol-free versions of classic cocktails.
24F, The Peninsula Tokyo, 1-8-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, TokyoMon-Thu and Sat 12:00-23:30; Fri 12:00-24:00; Sun and public holidays 12:00-23:00Full profile
The best bars by city in Japan
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These 40 are the starting point. The full BarMagazine directory covers every listed bar in Japan, with a map, filters by bar type, and new openings as we verify them.