Kazuaki Nagao

Chapter 1 — Six Years of Setbacks, and Finally the Best in Japan

On July 9, 2026, the final of DIAGEO WORLD CLASS—one of the world’s best-known cocktail competitions—was held at Roppongi Hills Arena in Tokyo to decide who would represent Japan.

Launched in London in 2009, DIAGEO WORLD CLASS is a truly global competition, bringing together bartenders who have prevailed in qualifying rounds across more than 50 countries and regions. It is far more than a contest of recipes. Technique, creativity, communication, adaptability and hospitality are all put to the test, making it one of the most demanding competitions of its kind.

Ten bartenders stood on the stage at Roppongi Hills Arena after completing the final round, each hoping to earn a place at the global final that autumn. Among them was Kazuaki Nagao.

How many times had he seen this view? This was his fifth appearance on the final stage.

Born in Kagawa Prefecture, Nagao began his career as a bartender at the age of 23. Today he manages Bar LIBRE in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. While building experience at bars in Japan and overseas, he continued to return to DIAGEO WORLD CLASS year after year.

The arena fell silent. Audience members clasped their hands, willing their bartender to win. In the suspended tension, the champion’s name was announced: “Kazuaki Nagao.” He let out a deep breath. At last, he had won the overall title and secured his place as Japan’s representative at the global final. His body trembled. His mind went blank. Although he stepped to the microphone at center stage as the champion, almost none of the words he had prepared would come.

“The people right in front of me were in tears. When I saw them, I felt overwhelmed too. All I could manage was, ‘Thank you so much.’”

In the arena were the colleagues and friends who had watched Nagao pursue this goal. Six years had passed since his first application. Again and again, people expected him to become Japan’s champion, and each time the title remained out of reach. As the number of people supporting him grew, so did his sense that he was letting them down because he had not delivered the result they hoped for.

“What hurt most was not my own disappointment. Every year, everyone on the team supported me, and I could not repay their faith. I felt I had to say, ‘I’m sorry. I couldn’t win again this year.’”

That is why, when his name was called, what surged through him was more than the joy of victory.

“More than happiness, I felt that I had finally been able to give something back. At last I could bring the long-awaited trophy back to Kiyo-san. That was what I was thinking.”

“Kiyo-san” is Yujiro Kiyosaki, the owner-bartender of Bar LIBRE in Ikebukuro, where Nagao serves as manager. Nagao uses the name with both affection and respect. When he stepped down from the stage, Kiyosaki was waiting with his arms wide open. The moment they embraced, all the emotion Nagao had been holding back came pouring out.

His words—“At last I could hand him the trophy”—also carried his gratitude to the family, staff and friends who had supported the challenge. Just ten days before the competition, on June 29, Nagao’s first child had been born. The final phase of his preparation and his new life as a father had begun at the same time.

Chapter 2 — Why He Could Not Win

“At first, I thought all I had to do was make a delicious cocktail.”

That is how Nagao remembers his earliest attempts at DIAGEO WORLD CLASS.

He believed that if he interpreted the theme freely, created something surprising and made it taste good, the judges would reward it. By his third and fourth attempts, however, he understood that taste alone would never be enough. Making a delicious drink is merely the starting point for a bartender. So what would it take to win? Now that he has become champion, Nagao can look back at his former self with a clear eye.

“Looking back, I was always giving myself an escape route. I would tell myself that it was acceptable for one challenge to be a little weaker, or that what I had done was good enough. If there is even one area where you compromise, you will never win that year. It sounds obvious, but I was being too easy on myself.”

DIAGEO WORLD CLASS sets four to six challenges each year, and the assignments change from one edition to the next. One year might include a speed challenge requiring five different cocktails in four minutes. Another might ask competitors to create and serve two drinks using handmade ingredients selected to complement the base spirit. In every case, simply making the drinks is not enough. Why were those ingredients chosen? How was the theme interpreted? What was the bartender trying to express? Within a strict time limit, the competitor must communicate the answers not only through flavor, but also through words and movement.

“This year, for example, there was a TIKI MALT CHALLENGE. You had to state clearly, ‘This is how I have redefined tiki,’ and ‘This is where the complexity lies,’ or you would not earn the points. It was not enough for the drink to taste good. I began to study presentation with absolute thoroughness.”

The judges work from a detailed rulebook. Flavor matters, but so do the interpretation of the theme, the completeness of the concept, creativity, complexity, understanding of the brand and the language used to communicate all of those elements. Each detail contributes to the score.

In a conventional cocktail competition, a bartender may spend one or two months refining a single recipe. At DIAGEO WORLD CLASS, competitors must devise more than a dozen drinks in a short period and build a concept and presentation for every one of them. That is the difficulty and the pain of the competition—and also the reason to keep returning. Nagao compares it to a triathlon.

“I think the level of difficulty is exceptional. But that is precisely why bartenders anywhere in the world understand the significance when you say, ‘I won WORLD CLASS.’ So many bartenders aspire to it. That is what makes winning meaningful.”

Chapter 3 — If I Enter, I’m Going to Win

Nagao had not planned to enter in 2026. He had told his staff that this year he would be on the supporting side.

In recent years, his overseas work and guest shifts had increased. He also taught at Bar Industry Academy, the bartender-training school operated by Bar LIBRE. There were regular service responsibilities, and he had a team to lead. With both his work and family circumstances changing considerably, he thought he might step back for a year or two before trying again.

Then an unexpected event changed his mind. At 3:00 a.m., a staff member who had planned to enter contacted him to say they wanted to withdraw. A four-hour photo shoot with a photographer was already scheduled for the following day, and the submission deadline was only two days away. Nagao did not want the photographer’s time to go to waste.

All right. I’ll enter. In that instant, he made the decision.

If he was going to enter, he was going to win. The last-minute decision became a commitment to rethink, from the ground up, the way he had approached the competition over the previous six years.

“Deep down, I think I wanted to enter. But I had told both my wife and the staff that I would not. If I was going to reverse that decision, then I had no choice but to win.”

He hesitated before telling his pregnant wife. He had promised to attend every prenatal checkup with her, and he genuinely wanted to protect their time together before the birth. At the same time, he grew anxious whenever practice time diminished. Caught between those feelings, he lost his composure, and the two found themselves clashing more often.

“Looking back, I think, ‘How small-minded could I be?’” he says with a laugh. “Knowing how much I had already asked of my wife only strengthened my determination to win.”

On July 8, the closed-door events of the DIAGEO WORLD CLASS 2026 Japan Final began. Four challenges made up the national final:

• TIKI MALT CHALLENGE
• WORLD CLASS SKILLS CHALLENGE
• SHAKE UP THE WORLD CHALLENGE
• ON TOP OF THE WORLD CHALLENGE

The first two were held on July 8 before only judges and officials. The remaining two took place the following day at Roppongi Hills Arena in front of a large audience. Each stage demanded a different ability. Nagao brought everything he had accumulated over six years to all four.

Challenge 1 — TIKI MALT CHALLENGE

The first challenge tested each bartender’s ability to interpret a theme and translate it into an original drink. The assignment was to create two cocktails combining whisky with tiki culture. Tiki is a cocktail tradition known for tropical fruit and spice, dramatic vessels and presentation, and a sense of joyful escape.

The rules were revealed about a month before the event. Although tiki drinks are commonly based on rum, the assigned spirits were Talisker 10 Year Old and The Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old—both single malt Scotch whiskies. Competitors had to create one tiki cocktail with each.

What did tiki mean to him? Nagao defined it as the character of the base spirit, complexity built with spices and herbs, and the excitement generated by appearance and presentation. He put that definition into clear language and communicated it to the judges through both the drinks and the performance.

“When I first began competing, I would probably have made something based on a vague image of what tiki felt like. This time, I clearly explained how I understood tiki and how I had redefined it.”

So what did he serve?

Talisker 10 Year Old is known for sea-spray salinity, a black-pepper intensity and smoky flavor. Nagao paired it with Sanuki mangoes from his native Kagawa Prefecture.

To meet the force of the smoky whisky, he performed the preparation in front of the judges, slicing open a mango that had been roasted whole until its skin was completely black.

“Roasting the whole mango draws out more sweetness and gives it a richer tropical quality. I also wanted people to feel that excitement and surprise: what happens when you roast a mango?”

For The Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old, Nagao used its gentle, fruity character to create a drink inspired by Tokyo Banana, the famous Tokyo confection. A foam made with banana liqueur and The Singleton floated on the surface, accompanied by a chocolate-coated cashew nut.

“The cashew resembles the shape of Tokyo Banana, while also echoing the nutty notes in The Singleton.”

The time limit was four minutes, leaving virtually no margin in the presentation. Even so, Nagao won the challenge—his first category title of the final.

Challenge 2 — WORLD CLASS SKILLS CHALLENGE

The next event tested precision in classic cocktails and the ability to respond in real time. Five classics were announced in advance, and on the day of the competition each bartender was assigned two to complete within the time limit.

Nagao drew the White Lady and the Old Fashioned. The Old Fashioned was the one drink he had hoped not to receive, because it required the most ingredients and steps of the five.

Bulleit Bourbon, the assigned base, features a distinctive notched edge on its label. Nagao had planned to cut an orange peel in the same shape and use it as a garnish. He ran out of preparation time, however, and could not complete the idea. It was the one area, he says with regret, in which he was not fully prepared.

During the presentation, he focused on the words “FRONTIER WHISKEY” printed on the bottle. He connected the frontier spirit of a pioneer opening new ground with judge Hidetsugu Ueno, incorporating an inspiration that arose in the moment.

Ueno is the owner-bartender of BAR HIGH FIVE in Ginza, Tokyo, and one of Japan’s most internationally respected bartenders. He has brought classic cocktails and the precision of Japanese bartending to audiences around the world. After serving for many years as a judge at the DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Global Final, he had been invited specifically to judge this challenge. Nagao addressed him with respect:

I am making this Old Fashioned for you.

Instead of simply repeating a memorized script, Nagao reshaped his presentation in the moment so that the drink was directed to the person in front of him. It was a glimpse of the adaptability he had developed through overseas experience and daily service.

“To be honest, the White Lady is one of Ueno-san’s signature classics, and I did not have the courage to ask him to judge mine,” Nagao says with a laugh.

Preparation for the challenge had been formidable. Even when the recipes were perfect, making two cocktails at once could not be completed in five minutes if he also delivered the full presentation. The actions and the words simply would not fit. Nor would he know which two drinks had been assigned until the day itself. Nagao wrote scripts for all five and drilled both words and movements until immediately before the event.

“If I only made the drinks, I could finish in time. But once I had to speak as well, it was impossible. With one day left, the only option was to memorize five complete presentations.”

He earned a strong score but narrowly missed the category title. Rather than lose momentum, Nagao immediately turned his attention to the challenges ahead.

Challenge 3 — SHAKE UP THE WORLD CHALLENGE

The following day, the competition moved to Roppongi Hills Arena before a large audience. The first event there was SHAKE UP THE WORLD CHALLENGE. Competitors were asked to honor a woman in the drinks industry who had inspired them, expressing her story and character in a cocktail based on premium tequila Don Julio 1942.

The panel comprised three women. The first was Mari Kamata, the inaugural DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Japan champion. The second was Marina Kishida, who had become the youngest champion in the history of the Japan competition the previous year. The third was Hiromi Metoki, who for many years has introduced Japan to Mexican spirits and bar culture, with tequila at the center. For Nagao, each had opened a different path within Japanese bar culture. Which one would he choose? His answer was to create a cocktail for all three.

His first drink honored Kamata, Mixology & Bar Manager at Peter: The Bar at The Peninsula Tokyo. Since 2023, she has conceived and produced a continuing event series inviting internationally active women bartenders as guests. Nagao presented her drink in these words: “Kamata-san’s hospitality is full of love and grace. Through an event called Gekka Bijin, she has created a place where people can bloom as themselves. I have expressed the beauty of people shining through lychee and jasmine. The cocktail is called Elegance. This drink is for you, Kamata-san.”

In Elegance, lychee and floral aromas opened the agave fragrance of Don Julio 1942 into a more luminous expression.

For Kishida of Gold Bar at EDITION, he said: “You began your career with coffee, became a bartender, and went on to become the youngest champion in the history of WORLD CLASS Japan. I have expressed that challenge and passion through passion fruit and coffee. The cocktail is called Passion.”

The acidity and aroma of passion fruit lifted the vanilla notes of Don Julio 1942, while coffee added a roasted depth to the lingering flavors of oak and caramel.

Finally came Metoki. Nagao described her contribution as follows: “Tequila was once strongly associated with shots. Through books and events, you have helped establish it as a spirit with a deeper culture and sense of luxury. By sharing knowledge, you moved Japanese bar culture forward. I have used sage, an herb associated with wisdom, and white grapes to express celebration and luxury. The cocktail is called Luxury. It is a champagne-style cocktail.”

But the presentation did not end there.

Nagao poured portions of the three cocktails into a separate pitcher and added Don Julio 1942, creating a fourth drink: Radiant 1942. It brought together and celebrated the achievements of all three women. Serving the completed cocktail to the judges once more, he said:

“Each of your lights is different: a light that helps people bloom; a light that opens a path through passion; and a light that illuminates the industry through knowledge. To me, changing the world means moving someone’s heart and kindling a light within it. Earlier I told you that I would make cocktails for the three people who lit that light in me. When three lights come together, they form one great radiance. This cocktail expresses that radiance.”

The challenge showcased both Nagao’s inventiveness and his ability to structure a compelling presentation. It brought him a second category victory.

Challenge 4 — ON TOP OF THE WORLD CHALLENGE

The final event was ON TOP OF THE WORLD CHALLENGE. As the name suggested, competitors were asked to create on stage a drink worthy of the world’s best bartender. The judges were three former DIAGEO WORLD CLASS global champions. They told the competitors, “We will be looking for the qualities required to become the best in the world.”

Nagao was determined to win this Tanqueray No. TEN challenge at any cost. That resolve was even reflected in the green jacket he had commissioned for the day. Tanqueray No. TEN is a deeply significant bottle for him, and behind that connection stands Kiyosaki, the bartender who has had the greatest influence on his career.

Kiyosaki was a finalist in the 2015 DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Japan competition. He won the Signature Cocktail Challenge, which paired the qualities of premium gin Tanqueray No. TEN with each bartender’s own strengths. For Nagao, WORLD CLASS was not only a place to test his abilities. It was also a stage on which he could follow in the footsteps of the person he had long admired.

“I wanted to stand on the same stage as Kiyo-san. For years, I had wanted to achieve a result in the same Tanqueray challenge.”

Nagao chose to make a deliberately restrained, elegant Martini. Its alcohol content, however, was roughly half that of a conventional Martini—about 15 to 16 percent, similar to white wine. He wanted a drink that anyone could take time to enjoy.

“Everyone knows the Martini, but I do not think many people taste one for the first time and immediately find it delicious. I lowered the alcohol so that people who are not strong drinkers could enjoy it, and so that it could still be sipped slowly as its temperature rose.”

The drink contained the story of Nagao’s ten years as a bartender.

To complement the chamomile-like floral aroma of Tanqueray No. TEN, he used an aromatic water produced by vacuum-distilling honey at a low temperature of 40°C. The flower-like fragrance extracted from the honey formed a bridge to the gin.

The three citrus fruits at the heart of Tanqueray No. TEN—orange, grapefruit and lime—were layered with Nagao’s own memories of place, from his childhood to the present. A house-made low-alcohol vermouth combined yuzu, representing Shikoku, with lemongrass, representing Vietnam, the country where he first challenged himself overseas. Taiwan, where he was first formally invited to work as a bartender, appeared in orange bitters infused with maqaw, an aromatic local spice. The character of Tanqueray No. TEN and the places and experiences of Nagao’s life were brought together in one Martini.

“This Martini contains my story.”

For the finish, he used an original technique, stirring while rapidly chilling the outside of the mixing glass with dry ice.

The rules awarded a five-point time bonus for every 30 seconds saved under the five-minute limit. Nagao’s target was to finish in under three minutes. While presenting, he completed the cocktail with precise, economical movement and finished as planned within three minutes, earning a substantial time bonus.

Immediately before the event, however, he had faced an unexpected problem.

During preparation time, Nagao had intended to invite each of the three global champions to sign the inside of a glass using a viscous syrup made with pomegranate and cardamom. Entertainment was an important judging criterion. By entrusting the final touch to the judges, he hoped to create a drink made uniquely for each person—and a memory that they had made it together. A cocktail, in Nagao’s view, is completed through communication with the person drinking it.

Then the running order changed, and the judges were not present during preparation. Nagao quickly decided to draw their initials himself. A second problem followed.

Because he was determined to serve the Martini ice-cold, he had pre-chilled the glasses in a refrigerator. Condensation formed on the surface, causing the carefully drawn initials to blur until they were no longer legible and looked like abstract patterns.

“I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ But I had no choice but to carry on. Later someone asked whether those patterns on the glasses had been intentional from the beginning. I said yes,” he recalls, laughing.

Although the performance did not unfold exactly as planned, he never stopped. He completed both the presentation and the perfectly chilled Martini. His name was called as the category winner of the final challenge.

The ability to read a theme. Technique refined through years of work, and the responsiveness to find an answer in the moment. The imagination and structure to transform another person’s story into a drink. And finally, a Martini containing the story of his own decade behind the bar. Each of the four challenges demanded something different, and each revealed a strength Nagao had developed through six years of competing and through his daily work. He won three of the four categories, completing a triple victory in what he had decided would be his final attempt.

Because he had spent six years examining why he could not win, Nagao understood better than anyone what victory required. After the competition, one judge told him:

“You have six years of experience in reserve. That is why I expect great things from you at the global final.”

The words made him happy. Those six years had not been a detour. Everything he had considered, attempted, failed at and learned had become a real source of strength as he prepared to take on the world.

Chapter 4 — Why He Set His Sights on the World

Ten days after becoming a father, Nagao became Japan’s top bartender. But that was not the only news from the wider world that summer.

Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026 was announced in Macau on July 28. More than 300 bar-industry professionals and drinks writers across Asia voted on the basis of bars they had personally visited. The identities of the voters are not disclosed.

The award evaluates far more than cocktails. Service, atmosphere, teamwork and the complete experience of the bar all matter. A place on the list can bring a sudden influx of visitors from around the world. Its influence is considerable.

Bar LIBRE ranked No. 49 in 2025 and rose to No. 39 in 2026. Guests began arriving as soon as the doors opened, and lines formed outside. Both visitor numbers and sales increased sharply, and the recognition changed the staff’s sense of what was possible.

DIAGEO WORLD CLASS was the title Nagao had earned as an individual. Asia’s 50 Best Bars recognized what the Bar LIBRE team had built together. In the same summer, the individual and the team each saw years of work rewarded.

“Of course I was happy to win the competition. But having the work that all of us have built together at the bar recognized brings a different kind of happiness. When the name Bar LIBRE reaches the world, it also creates new opportunities for the staff.”

The path did not suddenly open in 2026. Nagao had begun looking beyond Japan at the age of 23, before he had much experience of bars at all.

At the time, in his native Kagawa, he was working simultaneously at an izakaya and a café. He had barely visited any bars himself.

The turning point was a video he happened to find on YouTube. On screen was Angus Zou, who represented Taiwan at the 2010 DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Global Final and later co-founded Drinks Lab, which launched Draft Land in 2018. Nagao was captivated by the sight of Zou making a cocktail while presenting confidently in English. It was the first time he had connected the profession of bartending with the ability to express oneself to the world.

“I thought he looked incredible. It was not only the technique of making a cocktail. He was communicating his ideas in his own words. Watching him made me want to become a bartender.”

The following week, Nagao took ¥20,000 and traveled to Tokyo. In a single night, he visited four bars in Ginza and Akasaka. It was an entirely new world: quiet rooms, meticulously polished glassware, bartenders moving without a wasted gesture, and conversation flowing across the counter. Time seemed to pass differently than it did in an izakaya or café. Back in Kagawa, he immediately began searching for a way into the profession. He found it at Bar HEEL, an intimate members-only bar with about eight seats.

Over roughly four years there, he learned the foundations of bartending. Every Friday he used his day off to train at the whisky bar Bar Shamrock, and on Sundays he worked daytime shifts at a café. He scarcely had a day that felt like a true holiday.

“I wanted to catch up as quickly as possible. I started at 23, so I felt that I was already behind the people around me. I wanted to spend as much time as I could behind a counter and accumulate experience.”

In time, he felt a growing need to test himself outside Kagawa.

“A senior bartender in Tokyo who had helped me greatly said that a younger colleague wanted to open a bar in Vietnam and suggested that I meet him. I went to Tokyo to hear the details.”

It was a meeting that changed his life.

In 2017, Nagao was waiting in a Tokyo hotel café when a man with brown hair and a navy pinstripe suit came striding toward him. The man was Yujiro Kiyosaki.

At the time, Nagao was entering many competitions and had received offers from bars in Singapore, Shanghai and Hawaii. He had even visited them to assess the possibilities. That was why the prospect of opening a bar in Vietnam with Kiyosaki caught his attention.

Today, sophisticated bars continue to open across Vietnam. At the time, however, it was almost unheard of for a Japanese bartender to establish a bar there—much less in Da Nang, then only beginning to gain recognition as a resort destination.

“Kiyo-san told me, ‘I want to do it somewhere no one else has done it.’ I thought, ‘This person is interesting,’” Nagao recalls with a laugh. “If I could take on a challenge in a place where no one else had, I felt it would be exciting for me too.”

He would not be joining an established bar. He would be building one overseas from the ground up. His English was limited and he had no idea what would happen. Yet that uncertainty itself was compelling. One month after joining Bar LIBRE, Nagao flew alone to Vietnam to help launch Bar LIBRE Da Nang.

What awaited him was far removed from anything he had imagined. The contractors failed to arrive on time—and eventually stopped coming at all. Having studied architecture in high school, Nagao could draw plans. He cut and carried timber, mixed concrete, and helped build the counter with the team’s own hands. The first drinks made across the newly finished counter were eight gin and tonics.

“The whole team raised a glass together. Because we had worked so hard for it, it was the best drink imaginable.”

One night, a power outage melted every piece of ice in the freezer. They lit candles, looked out at the sea and drank wine that was not cold. In Japan, a blackout might have been a reason to suspend service. Their local colleagues found a way to enjoy the situation itself.

In Japan, any departure from the plan had caused Nagao stress. In Vietnam, there was no point lamenting what had already happened. The question was how to enjoy and make use of the circumstances at hand. He says that outlook changed his values profoundly.

English was another challenge. Today he can speak with international guests and present in English at competitions without difficulty.

“Before I left for Vietnam, Kiyo-san told me, ‘Work on your English too.’ At the time, I had no room for that at all,” he says with a laugh.

Even so, through conversation with Vietnamese staff, shopping in local markets, construction meetings and service behind the bar, he gradually began to understand the language. He also set aside 30 minutes every day to speak with the building’s owner. In an environment where work could not progress unless he communicated, he acquired the words he needed one by one.

He also entered a citywide cocktail competition. In its unusual format, competitors worked in pairs: Nagao developed the cocktail while his partner presented it in English. They walked through markets in search of ingredients and incorporated local glassware and culture. The pair won.

Until then, Nagao had believed he had to be capable of doing everything by himself. The competition showed him that when people contribute their respective strengths and compensate for one another’s limitations, they can create something together across differences of language and nationality.

“What I learned in Vietnam was less about cocktail technique than about human connection. There are things I cannot achieve alone that can take shape when I have a team. That experience remains at the heart of how I work today.”

After returning to Japan in 2019, he continued to build relationships overseas—in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and New York. Guest shifts and events brought him into contact with bartenders in each place. Every journey also made him more aware of the value of Japanese bar culture.

In 2026, a new bar opened in New York. Inspired by the Japanese idea of omakase, it was named COCKTAIL OMAKASE. Guests leave their cocktail selections in the bartender’s hands. Bar LIBRE supervised the cocktail recipes and the Japanese-style bar service.

Nagao traveled to New York with Kiyosaki for the opening. Before they left, he proposed an idea he had been considering.

“Why don’t we serve cocktails using fresh fruit?”

In Japanese bars, cutting fresh fruit in front of the guest and using it as a cocktail ingredient is a familiar sight.

Nagao’s own bar offers a range of fresh-fruit cocktails, but the practice is not universal overseas. No two strawberries, for example, have exactly the same sweetness or acidity. The bartender assesses the condition of the fruit and adjusts acidity and sweetness with other ingredients to maintain a consistent drink. Japanese bartenders acquire this sensitivity through training. Nagao sees it as a distinctive part of Japan’s cocktail culture and believed that fresh-fruit cocktails would intrigue guests in New York.

“When I work overseas, I rediscover the value of things Japanese bartenders do every day without thinking. What feels ordinary to us can appear exceptional from abroad. I came to feel that we should communicate those strengths of Japanese bartending more clearly.”

Fruit was selected in front of each guest, and every drink was adjusted to its condition and the guest’s preferences. About 20 guests came on the first day. By the final day, the wait had grown to two and a half hours.

Nagao’s next major stage is the DIAGEO WORLD CLASS Global Final, to be held in Scotland in October 2026. As Japan’s representative, he will compete against champions from around the world. What he wants to show there is precisely the technique and sensitivity Japanese bartenders cultivate in their daily work.

“There are still parts of Japanese bartending that are not widely understood. Through my cocktails, I want to show Japan’s attention to detail and its hospitality.”

Nagao does not go overseas simply to make his own name known. Leaving Japan allows him to re-examine his work. Encountering other cultures helps him recognize the strengths of his own. And with the people he meets, he can create something new.

The world he once glimpsed through a YouTube video at the age of 23 is no longer a distant place to admire. Nagao has entered it carrying work of his own. Throughout that journey, Bar LIBRE and Kiyosaki have been his foundation.

Chapter 5 — The Culture of Bar LIBRE

Bar LIBRE opened in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, in 2011. “Libre” means “free” in Spanish. While respecting the foundations of classic cocktails, the bar actively embraces new techniques and forms of expression, including liquid nitrogen, smoke, aroma and distillation equipment. It moves freely between tradition and innovation, expanding the possibilities of a single drink. At its center is owner-bartender Yujiro Kiyosaki.

Kiyosaki helped launch BAR 2000 at Tokyo Dome Hotel and then spent approximately ten years as manager of Kien in Kagurazaka from the time it opened. He later founded Bar LIBRE in Ikebukuro. In addition to operating bars, he has worked in bar development and bartender education. For Nagao, “employer” or “boss” cannot adequately describe the relationship.

“He is a father, a brother and a senior guide in life. I cannot define him in one phrase. Kiyo-san lets people try things first. Even when most people would stop you, if he thinks an idea is interesting, he tells you to do it. If you fail, he watches to see what you learn from it.”

Soon after Nagao joined Bar LIBRE, Kiyosaki sent him alone to Vietnam. In the month before departure, Nagao memorized the bar’s recipes and practiced after service. His English was still far from fluent, yet Kiyosaki did not try to teach him every expression he would need. He entrusted Nagao with the entire experience: thinking independently, acquiring what was necessary and finding a way forward.

First master the fundamentals, then take on the challenge. Think, act and accept responsibility for the result. Freedom does not mean simply doing whatever one likes. That is the freedom Bar LIBRE values.

The adaptability Nagao displayed on the DIAGEO WORLD CLASS stage was cultivated in this environment. The attitude he developed overseas—accepting the situation he was given and finding the best possible answer within it—has become part of his everyday work.

In Bar LIBRE’s early years, there were few detailed manuals. Staff learned by watching senior colleagues and took the initiative to ask when they did not understand. The approach worked because the team was small.

It was common for guests to remain after 2:00 a.m. When Nagao was new, he quite naturally went to take last orders. Watching him, Kiyosaki and another staff member said to each other, “He’s taking last orders.”

“I simply assumed every bar had last orders. I didn’t know,” Nagao says, laughing.

Until then, Bar LIBRE had no concept of a last order. Closing time was whenever the final guest left. Seeing Nagao calmly ask for the last round made Kiyosaki think that the idea might be worth adopting. The bar now has a midnight last order and closes at 1:00 a.m. As locations and teams expanded, a variety of standards became necessary in order to preserve the freedom at the heart of the business.

In April 2025, Bar Industry Academy opened with Kiyosaki as chairman. Active Bar LIBRE bartenders teach technique and knowledge in Japanese, English and Chinese. The school goes beyond instruction to support employment and independent careers. Nagao also serves as an instructor, moving from the role of student to that of mentor.

“I do not want it to be a place that teaches technique alone. Why do we make this movement? Why do we use this ingredient? I want to develop bartenders who can think for themselves and put those reasons into words.”

It is the same way of thinking Nagao developed through DIAGEO WORLD CLASS.

Chapter 6 — The Next Stage

Before the results were announced, Nagao sent a message to his wife, who was watching the live stream: “I want to run away. I wish they would just tell me the result later by letter.” Waiting for the outcome of the goal he had pursued for six years was that frightening.

His wife replied, “It’s all right. You are definitely going to win this time.” Her words proved true. After the ceremony, Nagao called to tell her that he had become Japan’s champion.

“She said, ‘I knew you would win. Congratulations to the best dad in Japan. Next, let’s work together toward becoming the best in the world.’”

Before expressing his joy, Nagao apologized and thanked her. The competition had overlapped with the birth of their child. He said he was sorry for the burden he had placed on her and grateful that she had continued to support him. Relief at the victory released many emotions at once.

That night, Nagao returned home and resumed his ordinary role as a father: feeding his newborn child at 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.

“Nothing changes at home just because the competition is over. When I return, I feed the baby. That is my role.”

The birth of his first child limited both his sleep and his practice time. Yet fatherhood did not obstruct the challenge. It gave him another reason to see it through.

“I wanted to be able to say, ‘In the year you were born, your father won.’”

Becoming a father also changed the way Nagao thought about work. Bartending could no longer be something he continued simply because he loved it; he also had to support his family. He began to consider time, working style and income with greater discipline.

A bartender’s work is not limited to standing behind a counter at night. Operations, education, international events, product and tool development, and bar consulting all offer ways to apply experience.

“If standing behind the counter every night is the only way I work, it may become difficult to make time for my family. I began to think about how I could use what I have developed as a bartender in other forms as well.”

Nagao now has a clear vision of the future. He wants to pass the opportunities and experience he has received on to other places and to people he has yet to meet.

“Someday I want to return to my hometown and create a small boutique hotel with my wife. I imagine only a dozen or so rooms, using local ingredients and fruit and working with the region’s producers and makers to create an experience that exists only there. Of course, it will have a bar.”

Everything he learned about freedom and responsibility at Bar LIBRE, and everything he gained from six years devoted to DIAGEO WORLD CLASS, will one day return with him to Kagawa.

One goal is to create the first bar in Shikoku to be named among Asia’s 50 Best Bars. Nagao wants to build a place that draws visitors not only to Tokyo or Osaka, but beyond the major cities—and communicates local food, culture and craft. Underlying the vision is a desire to raise the social standing of bartending as a profession.

“Especially outside the major cities, there is still a deeply rooted tendency to dismiss bartending as unstable or socially undervalued night-time work. I want to change that. I want bartending to be a profession people can name with pride. When bartenders marry, I want their partner’s parents to feel reassured. I want children to be proud of the work their father or mother does.”

Beyond the title Nagao pursued for six years lies the world. Beyond the world lies his home, Kagawa. His path continues still further ahead.