Beer In Japan
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Beer in Japan mostly comes from the country's four major breweries,
Asahi Asahi (Japanese 朝日, 旭, or あさひ 'morning sun') may refer to: Places in Japan Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi ...
, Kirin,
Sapporo is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in Hokkaido, Japan. Located in the southwest of Hokkaido, it lies within the alluvial fan of the Toyohira River, a tributary of the Ishikari River. Sapporo is the capital ...
and
Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and ...
, which mainly produce
pale lager Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...
s around 5%
ABV Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...
. Beer is immensely popular, far ahead of
sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
consumption. As well as
Pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery. History ...
style lagers, the most commonly produced
beer style Beer styles differentiate and categorise beers by colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin. The modern concept of beer styles is largely based on the work of writer Michael Jackson in his 1977 book ...
in Japan, beer-like beverages made with lower levels of
malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...
, called or non-malt , have captured a large part of the market, as tax is substantially lower on these products.
Microbreweries Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...
have also become increasingly popular since deregulation in 1994, supplying distinct tasting beers in a variety of styles that seek to match the emphasis on craftsmanship, quality, and ingredient provenance often associated with
Japanese food Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and other ...
. Craft beer bars and pubs are also popular in Japan's major cities, with
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
and
Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
having vibrant craft beer scenes, generally with a focus on locally produced and imported beers from the US and Europe. In 2014, Kirin entered the craft beer market with the launch of a wholly owned subsidiary, Spring Valley Brewing, and two brewpubs in Daikanyama, Tokyo, and Namamugi,
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
, which opened in 2015. Industrial brewery Sapporo also released a craft line in 2015.


History

Although the tradition of sake brewing long predates European contact,
beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
is thought to have been first introduced to
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
in the 17th century during the
Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
by Dutch traders. However, beer was not widely available until the end of the 19th century, with the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 opening Japan to foreign trade. European-style beer was not always immediately popular: one Japanese official described the beer presented by Commodore Matthew Perry at Kanagawa as tasting like "bitter horse piss". As Japan reopened to foreign trade during the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
, imported beers such as
Bass Pale Ale Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the b ...
and Bass Stout were available in limited quantities in the foreign settlements, but trained brewers from Europe and elsewhere also arrived to contribute to the growth of the local industry. The brewery that would become
Kirin Brewery Company is a Japanese beer and beverage holding company. It is known for brands such as Kirin Beer, Kirin Lemon, Mets, and Gogo no Kōcha. The predecessor of the company, the Japan Brewery Company, was founded in Yokohama in 1885 by William Henry Tal ...
began in
Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...
in late 1869 as the Spring Valley Brewery, a private business established by
Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...
William Copeland. The
Sapporo Brewery is a Japanese brewery, beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo, the oldest brand of beer in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Ebisu, ...
was founded in 1876 as a part of a government-directed development plan for
Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...
.
Asahi Breweries The is a Japanese beverage holding company headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. In 2019, the group had revenue of JPY 2.1 trillion. Asahi's business portfolio can be segmented as follows: Alcoholic drink, alcoholic beverage business (40.5%), over ...
traces its founding heritage to the start of the Osaka Beer Brewing Company in 1889, and the launch of the Asahi Beer brand in 1892. Restrictions during the Second World War that limited the use of rice for making sake boosted beer consumption; by the 1950s, beer was Japan's most popular alcoholic drink. In the 1980s, the country gained renown for its "dry" beer, pioneered by brewers like Asahi.


Market size

Beer (and beer-like '' happoshu'') are the most popular alcoholic drink in Japan, accounting for nearly two thirds of the 9 billion liters of alcohol consumed in 2006. Japan's domestic consumption of the total 187.37 million
kiloliter The litre ( Commonwealth spelling) or liter (American spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metres (m3). A cubic ...
global beer market in 2012 was about 5.55 million kiloliters or about 3.0%. This statistic for total beer consumption in Japan also includes the beer-like ''happoshu''. In terms of national per capita beer consumption Japan ranked 51st in 2014, equivalent to 42.6 liters per person, reflecting the diversified alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage market enjoyed by Japanese consumers. Demographic factors are expected to continue to push down sales of mass-market beer products in Japan for the foreseeable future as younger consumers are drinking less beer than previous generations. For the calendar year 2013, overall shipments for Japan's five largest brewers were 433.57 million cases, (a case is equivalent to 12.66 liters of beer or 27 US pints) more than 20% off the market peak achieved in 1992. However, for locally produced
craft beers A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pro ...
accounting for less than 1% of domestic beer consumption and selected premium imported beers, market opportunities continue to expand. According to local market data, in the first eight months of 2012, shipments of domestic craft beer rose 7.7 percent while sales by Japan's largest brewers continued a year on year decline. In 2014, Asahi, with a 38% market share, was the largest of the four major beer producers in Japan followed by Kirin with 35% and Suntory with 15%. In 2020, Kirin surpassed Asahi in the Japanese beer market, holding a 37.1% share compared to Asahi's 35.2%. This marked the first time since 2001 that Kirin outperformed Asahi. Kirin's market share increased by 1.9 percentage points year-on-year, while Asahi's share decreased by 1.7 percentage points.


Beer vs. ''happoshu''

Brewed alcoholic beverages in Japan are labelled and taxed according to their malt content (i.e., amount of alcohol derived from malted grains): legally, must have at least 50% malt, while beverages with less malt are collectively called . ''Happoshu'' (also translated as "low-malt beer")'''' is taxed less than beer, and thus has appeal to the consumer. Beverages with less than 25% malt or no malt at all are often called , or , in reference to their even lower tax, despite not being labelled beer as such. To replace the highly taxed malt, brewers have developed innovative sources of starch and sugar to be fermented into alcohol not commonly used as brewing adjuncts elsewhere, including soy peptides and
pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...
protein. A tax law revision that went into effect in 2018 lowered the malt requirement for the beer category, allowed more ingredients in beer, and introduced a plan to have beer and ''happoshu'' taxed at the same rates in 2026. This erosion of ''happoshu'' favorable tax rate "may in the long run favor traditional beer". Before 2018, the beer requirement was 67% malt.


Major beer producers

*
Asahi Breweries The is a Japanese beverage holding company headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo. In 2019, the group had revenue of JPY 2.1 trillion. Asahi's business portfolio can be segmented as follows: Alcoholic drink, alcoholic beverage business (40.5%), over ...
* Kirin *
Sapporo Brewery is a Japanese brewery, beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo, the oldest brand of beer in Japan, was first brewed in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 1876 by Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Ebisu, ...
*
Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and ...
*
Orion Breweries is the fifth-largest beer brewery in Japan, headquartered in Tomigusuku, Okinawa Prefecture. The company commands approximately 1% of the Japanese beer market, and 60% of the Okinawan beer market. History Founded in 1957 in Nago, Okinawa, duri ...


Dry Wars

The Dry Senso or ドライ戦争 (どらいせんそう, ''dorai sensō'') meaning ''Dry Wars'', was a period of intense competition between Japanese brewery companies over
dry beer Pale lager is a Pale (color), pale-to-Gold (color), golden lager beer with a well-Attenuation (brewing), attenuated body and a varying degree of Hops#Noble hops, noble hop Bitterness (taste), bitterness. In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmay ...
. It began in 1987 with the launch of ''Asahi Super Dry'' by Asahi Breweries which led to the introduction of dry beer by other breweries. The Kirin Brewery Company, which held 50% share of the Japanese domestic beer market, launched ''Kirin Dry'' in February 1988 in an advertising campaign featuring actor
Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – ) was an American actor. Hackman made his credited film debut in the drama ''Lilith (film), Lilith'' (1964). He later won two Academy Awards, his first for Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actor for ...
, and in April of the same year launched the all-malt ''Kirin Malt Dry''. However, they were unable to stop Asahi's momentum. In 1990 Kirin launched ''Ichiban Shibori'' in direct competition with Asahi Super Dry, but ended up cannibalising profits on their own Kirin Lager Beer brand. Kirin never ended up regaining its 50% market share. Sapporo Breweries launched the doomed ''Sapporo Dry'' in February 1988, and in May 1989 rebranded their flagship product Sapporo Black Label as ''Sapporo Draft'' to an unfavourable reception. Production of Sapporo Dry and Sapporo Draft was halted less than two years after their respective launches, and Sapporo Draft later returned to being Black Label. Suntory launched their ''Malts'' brand in February 1988 in an "I don't do dry" campaign, while at the same time launching ''Suntory Dry'', later rebranded ''Suntory Dry 5.5'' in an advertising campaign featuring boxer
Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...
after increasing the alcohol content from 5% to 5.5%. This achieved reasonable results, although not enough to slow down demand of Asahi Super Dry. The Dry Wars were criticised in an episode of the manga ''
Oishinbo is a long-running Japanese cooking manga series written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by . The manga's title is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for "delicious", , and the word for someone who loves to eat, . The series depicts the adventur ...
'' (the Gourmet), published at around the same time.


Seasonal beers

Many breweries in Japan offer
seasonal beer A seasonal beer is a beer that is typically brewed during or for a particular season, holiday or festival period. Many breweries produce seasonal beers. Seasonal beers may be produced when fresh ingredients are available during various seasons, p ...
s. In autumn, for instance, "autumn beers" are brewed with a higher alcohol content, typically 6% as opposed to the common 5% of Asahi Super Dry. For example, Kirin's ''Akiaji'' beer. The beer cans are typically decorated with pictures of autumn leaves, and the beers are advertised as being suitable for drinking with ''
nabemono ''Nabemono'' (鍋物, なべ物, ''nabe'' "cooking pot" + ''mono'' "thing"), or simply ''nabe'', is a variety of Japanese hot pot dishes, also known as one-pot dishes and "things in a pot". Description Nabemono are stews and soups containin ...
'' (one-pot cooking). Similarly, in winter, beers such as 冬物語 or ''Fuyu Monogatari'' (ふゆものがたり, translated as "The Winter's Tale" on the can) appear.


Microbreweries

In 1994, Japan's strict tax laws were relaxed allowing smaller breweries producing 60,000 litres (15,850 gal) per year for a beer license or 6000 litres per year for a happoshu license. Before this change, breweries could not get a license without producing at least 2 million litres (528,000 gal) per year. As a result, a number of smaller breweries have been established throughout Japan. After of relaxation of tax laws in the early 1990s, the commonly used term for microbrew in Japan was , or "local beer", although Japanese microbrew industry professionals are increasingly using the name in their labels and marketing literature. There are currently over 200 microbreweries in Japan, although many in this number are financially tied to larger
sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...
producers, restaurant chains, resort hotels or similar. Microbreweries in Japan produce various
styles of beer Beer styles differentiate and categorise beers by colour, flavour, strength, ingredients, production method, recipe, history, or origin. The modern concept of beer styles is largely based on the work of writer Michael Jackson in his 1977 book ...
including ales, IPAs, stout, pilsner, weissbier, kölsch, fruit beers and others. After the relaxation of the Liquor Tax Law in 1994, there was an initial boom in microbrewing, but the quality of regional microbrews were often mixed and initial consumer enthusiasm leveled off. The popularity of low-cost ''happoshu'' (low-malt beer), compared to the high cost microbrews, forced a number of early microbreweries out of business. The dominance of the major industrial brewers and the relative high cost and low volume involved in producing micros led to their only being known to a small number of beer enthusiasts. In the 2000s however, thanks to factors such as licensed production for some bar and restaurant chains, cooperation between micro breweries, and a more educated consumer base, craft beer has seen a more sustained rise in domestic demand. Improved product quality, word of mouth marketing facilitated by social media websites, the attention given to the rise of US-based craft brewing industry and the growth of independent craft beer retail outlets in major cities, have all contributed to the recent success enjoyed by Japanese craft brewers. Today there are a growing number of regional microbrew festivals held throughout Japan, including the Great Japan Beer Festival series held annually in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama. Every year, the Japan Craft Beer Association holds the Japan Beer Cup, while a competing organization, Japan Craft Beer Support, has launched the annual Nippon Craft Beer Festival.


Notable microbreweries

*
Kiuchi Brewery Kiuchi Brewery (木内酒造) is a brewery in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. It was established in 1823 by village headman Kiuchi Gihei as a sake and shochu producer. Craft beer production began in 1996 after a change in Japanese law govern ...
* Yo-Ho Brewing


Methods of distribution

Other than in serviced restaurants and bars, in Japan beer can be purchased at a wide variety of outlets, including supermarkets, convenience stores, and kiosks at train stations. Beer can also be sold in
vending machines A vending machine is an automated machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or payment is otherwise m ...
although, as of 2012, this has become much less common in major cities. Some vending machines have motion activated advertising that displays on small TV screens embedded into them. They play beer commercials and jingles that are seen on TV and heard on the radio. These vending machines began to be phased out in June 2000, mainly over concerns of underage drinking.


Drinking culture

The
legal drinking age The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary betwe ...
in Japan is 20 years old. In terms of
drinking culture Drinking culture is the set of traditions, rituals, and social behaviors associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward Drinking#Alcoholic beverages, drinking vary around the worl ...
, beer drinking and opening formal toasts with beer, as a part of a group, sports team or after-work corporate social bonding activity, is widespread. Beer can legally be consumed almost anywhere in public, with notable exceptions for organized events, summer festivals and spring cherry blossom parties.
Social convention A convention influences a set of agreed, stipulated, or generally accepted standards, social norms, or other criteria, often taking the form of a custom. In physical sciences, numerical values (such as constants, quantities, or scales of measure ...
means that open consumption of alcohol on the street or ordinary commuter trains is rare. Japan has very strict laws against operating a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle during or after the consumption of alcohol. Fines, prison time and other penalties can also apply to individuals deemed responsible for supplying alcohol to an intoxicated driver and those traveling in the same vehicle.


Japanese beers available outside Japan

Japanese-style commercial
brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...
and beer products have been successfully exported worldwide or are produced locally under license and are distributed in a number of overseas markets. In the US, all four major Japanese brands are available. These include Sapporo Draft, Kirin Ichiban (Number One, as opposed to the normal Lager which is not available), Asahi Super Dry, and Suntory Premium Malt's. Asahi is produced by Molson in Canada, Kirin is produced at Anheuser-Busch facilities in
Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It had a population of 15,425 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern par ...
and
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, and Sapporo is produced at a Sapporo-owned brewery in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Suntory, brewed in and imported from Japan, is available on tap in select major markets. The availability of brands depends on an individual state's liquor laws, resulting in some beers being available in some places and others not. For example, in Oklahoma, Asahi Super Dry, Sapporo, and Orion are available, whereas in Texas, Kirin Ichiban is prevalent. Kiuchi brewery was the first Japanese microbrewery to export beer from Japan. Many other Japanese microbreweries now export to North America, Europe, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.


Homebrewing

Although it is technically illegal in Japan to produce beverages containing more than 1% alcohol without a license, the law is rarely adhered to for homebrewers, and
homebrewing Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...
supplies are available from high street stores and websites.


See also

*
Beer and breweries by region This is a list of articles and categories dealing with beer and breweries by region: the breweries and beers in various regions. Beer is the world's most widely consumed alcoholic drink, and is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and ...
* '' Happoshu''


References


External links


Directory of Japanese Brewers (RateBeer.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer In Japan