An efficient method for the treatment of distillery wastewater from shochu-making, which has high organic matters and suspended solids, must be developed as soon as possible as an alternative to sea dumping. First of all, Aspergillus awamori var. kawachi was cultivated aerobically at 35 degrees C for a day in a 30-litre jar-fermenter (working volume; 18 litres) with an agitator using the distillery wastewater as a medium. The specific resistance of the cultivated broth drastically decreased from 1.17 x 10(13) m kg(-1) to 2.82 x 10(11) m kg(-1), which facilitated filtration. The concentrations of BOD and PO43- in the filtrate of the cultivated broth also decreased drastically to 48400 and 235 mg litre(-1), respectively. After the filtrate was diluted three times with tap water, it was treated by an anaerobic fluidized-bed reactor at 37 degrees C. By addition of Ni2+ and Co2+ to the diluted wastewater the maximum volumetric TOC loading rate of 22 g litre(-1) day(-1) could be achieved. However, the concentration of NH4+ increased up to 1800 mg litre(-1) during the anaerobic treatment. The NH4+ was removed easily in a denitrification reactor by using volatile fatty acids remaining during the anaerobic treatment as electron donors. The quality of effluent from a nitrification reactor was suitable to be discharged to a river.