give ~ a kick up the backside

マッサンがらみではないでしょうが，ウイスキーの本家，スコットランドがこのところの日本製ウイスキーの質のよさに危機感をいだいているようです。

a kick up the backside（the arse）は，俗語で一般には「きびしい批判，非難」（"if you give someone a kick up the backside, you do or say something to try to stop them being lazy"--Cambridge Idiom Dictionary電子版）という意味です。ここでは「本家ということであぐらをかいていたスコットランドのウイスキー製造業への警鐘となる」といった意味で用いられています。竹鶴氏の悲願がここに来てやっと達成されたのでしょうか。（Green）

Japan rivals Scotland in race for best whisky

Commercial production started in Japan in 1924 when liquor entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii opened a distillery in Yamazaki and hired Masataka Taketsuru to run the distillery. Taketsuru learned his craft at distilleries in Scotland, and brought the techniques back to Japan.

Early manufacturers tweaked Scottish methods to make original whiskies that catered to Japanese tastes, said Euromonitor analyst Mariko Takemura.
"It was hard for Scotch whiskies to be accepted by Japanese consumers, because they were considered too smoky, so manufacturers tried to find tastes that could be accepted," said Takemura.

Taketsuru later started his own company, Nikka, which is now one of Japan's most famous whisky producers. Nikka's Yoichi single malt, aged 20 years, was named by Whisky Magazine as the world's best in 2008.

Torii's company, now called Suntory Holdings, has also grown, acquiring American spirits maker Jim Beam for $16 billion in January. The combined company is the world's fourth-largest whisky producer and the sixth-biggest spirits company.

As a whole, experts say that the global whisky industry is seeing a renaissance.

"The growth outside the established distilling nations such as the U.S., Japan, Ireland and Scotland has grown tenfold in the past 10 years, with the likes of England, South Africa, India and Australia winning top accolades," said the Whisky Corporation's Stephen Notman.

But even with increased global competition, Scotland is still top dog. A Scottish whisky -- a single bottle of Macallan "M" scotch -- holds the record as the world's most expensive whisky, sold for $628,205 at auction.

And whisky remains Scotland's biggest export after oil, with 40 bottles going overseas each second, bringing in £4.3 billion ($6.7 billion) in 2013, according to the Scotch Whisky Association. It's such a boom that Scots call whisky "golden oil."

Experts say diversity is positive for industry innovation, and that there's room for everyone.

"It gives Scotland a kick up the backside -- how can we improve, and what can we do better," Pollacchi said. Global whisky makers are simply "producing different styles of whisky ... there's a different whisky for a different mood, a different moment, a different time."

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/24/news/japan-whisky/index.html?hpt=hp_t3