I was shocked to find out upon moving to KL last year that the range of shochu we get here far outweighs HK. By multiple fold frankly. We don’t have the high-tier stuff afaik (Hyakunen no Kodoku I’ve yet to see in retail), but for low/mid-range stuff, KL smashes HK shochu completely. My collection is almost at 30 bottles, and many of them are simply not available in Hong Kong, including Yamada and a huge range of Iki and Kokuto shochus.
The only problem is that the knowledge of shochu among locals is somehow even worse here than in HK. Meaning almost all the consumption is from Japanese expats, which is good and bad in its own way. It means that my shochu bar concept here will require a japanese bartender (maybe it always did), but it also means we need to work harder to make shochu more palatable for new local palates. It’s a challenge, but it always is isn’t it?