had some soju earlier today

The stuff thats at a normal strength of around 40% and without flavorings is p nice actually

Should make some sometime

That stuff is closer to a liqueur since they add fructose and sucrose to it

Modern soju isnt just distilled rice wine anymore, traditionally they did also add sweet potatoes to it but a ton of it now also has a ton of barley and other starch sources like regular potatoes, cassava, tapioca and such
And since its made industrially they dont convert the starch to sugar using molds like koji and whatnot, but they just use amylase enzymes and as such they miss out on a ton of flavor thats produced by the molds and gets concentrated through distillation

They then run it through column stills and basically just make neutral alcohol, water it down and add sugar so its easy to drink, so its basically just sweetened and watered down vodka

The traditional still was also a sort of ceramic pot still, course that wouldnt give you a particularly high abv, unlike the 95%ish abv stuff they use in the production of modern soju
And well, sweet potatoes have been in use for the longest as alternate starch sources but really traditional soju of course is just rice

Japanese schochu is still mostly produced using a pot still, though it can also have stuff like barley and sweet potatoes added in
But hey, at least its not just sweetened and watered down 95% neutral alcohol

Not that ive ever had the jap booze though