Yeast strains for shochu making were isolated from the Hyuga-nada of the Miyazaki Coast and surrounding sea area of the Ishigaki Island of Okinawa Prefecture to develop an excellent quality of fragrant flavor and strong body as a Honkaku-Shochu. Sixteen strains for shochu making which showed good fermentation, assimilation of carbon compounds, and pellicle non-producing were selected from 547 strains of yeast-like microbes. From the result of fermentation tests using shochu barley koji, three strains were finally selected. These strains showed a good fermentation process and higher ethanol production ability than that of a general shochu yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae SH 4. Especially the B 1 D-12 strain showed the best stable fermentation process in the laboratory scale of sweet potato shochu making. This strain was identified as S. cerevisiae by genetic analysis using 28 S-rDNA. It was confirmed that this strain showed better sodium chloride tolerance, ethanol tolerance, and thermostability than those of general shochu yeasts. The feasibility of application to shochu making suggested that the strain also revealed good fermentation in the laboratory scale of sweet potato shochu mash under a high temperature condition. This strain further showed levels of fermentation higher than those of S.cerevisiae Kagoshima No.2 on an industrial scale of sweet potato shochu making. From these facts, it was concluded that the B 1 D-12 strain was very useful for shochu making.