Just completed a ~2 week stay in Japan. The Whiskey situation has become more dire if anything. You can walk around all day without seeing a single reasonably priced bottle with age statement.
Duty free and major department stores have some stock, but outrageously priced. As mentioned above, 50k is the going rate for Yama/Hak 18 or Hibiki 21.
Donkis have been pretty dry compared to my March/April trip. Donkis, of course, fall into three categories: The neighborhood Donki, which has nothing with age statement and probably didn't when the stuff was plentiful; the clusterf* Donki (identifiable by a line around the building of visitors from certain neighboring countries who are waiting to have their duty free forms processed) where you run the risk of being trampled if a shipment of Harmony or bottom shelf stuff comes in; and the slightly-more-upscale Donki (in fairly affluent locations, perhaps frequented by expats, but not on the tourist circuit) -- the latter is the only worth visiting.
BIC Camera has some really strong locations -- there was nothing good in Tokyo and Sapporo, but the Namba store again shone, with the following in stock:
Kurayoshi 33 -- 148k
Kurayoshi 25 -- 49800
Kurayoshi 18 -- 12k
Kurayoshi 12 -- 6980
Kurayoshi 8 -- 7480
Nikka 12 -- 5580
Hakushu 18 -- 24800
Hibiki and Yamazaki minis -- 780
Of course, one finds the best deals when not looking -- I stumbled upon a sizeable stock of Yamazaki 12 in some random non-chain convenience store in Hakdodate, priced at 8400.
Another wild card are the consignment/re-sellers that can be found in touristy and less savory areas. I stumbled upon one in Susukino that had Hakushu 18 for 25k -- the bottles looked ok, but of course one never knows.