Japan wants young people to drink more alcohol

[Lev1a]

Via "Abroad in Japan" ( https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxrA_wnEJD3Pm_GL9KSV9Euia_Rdb... ):

> "We need to boost Japan's economy! What should we do?'

> -"Well we could let tourists in to take advantage of the weak yen, bringing in billions of dollars of revenue & saving businesses around the country?!"

> "NAH! Let's encourage younger generations to become alcoholics instead!"

>

I think that sums it up pretty well.

[thenoblesquid]

(checks notes) Yes, yes it does.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

As a former frequent traveler to Japan, I think that drinking (especially among salarymen) is out of hand.

I understand bars, taxes, and the alcohol industry, feeling pain, but I don't feel it's very good for people to drink like they do.

[bamboozled]

It’s totally out of hand and it’s in your face, everywhere you go.

[cm2187]

Well given their life expectancy, they must be doing something right.

[woweoe]

Japanese people drink far less than westerners though. Those work parties are just one-off and not regular things.

[laurieg]

I moved from the UK to Japan and find a few things interesting about alcohol and drinking culture.

* Many places do "all you can drink deals" sure, students and ying people use this to go crazy but I feel like older people are sensible and just treat it as a way to not worry about prices/splitting the bill.

* Alcohol is very available and very cheap. A bottle of coca cola and a 9% lemon drink are more or less the same price in a convenience store. Spirits and sake are cheap.

* Drunkenness is fairly common but violences is rare. I often see people falling over in the street making merry, or vomiting in the street in less merry moments. I've almost never seen a fist fight, which would be sadly common in the UK.

[webkike]

The first night I visited Japan I witnessed a Japanese man vomit on the subway. It was awesome

[chaoticmass]

And you can get Beer from a vending machine.

[ArekDymalski]

What immediately came to my mind was "If you feel you are not properly sedated, call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion"

[elevaet]

Is that from thx-1138?

[mkl95]

> In a 2021 report, the tax agency said duties on liquor had been a major revenue source for the government for centuries, but had declined in recent decades. Japan received 1.1 trillion yen ($8.1 billion) in alcohol tax in 2021 -- 1.7% of overall tax revenue, compared to 3% in 2011, and 5% in 1980

That's a big % of their economy. However some googling reveals that [1]

> Summing up the costs of each component of the overall cost to society, the total cost of alcohol abuse was estimated at 6,637.5 yen billion, representing 1.9% of the gross national product in 1987, which was three times that of the national revenue from taxes on alcohol beverages.

Which means this move may do more harm than good.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8412152/

[searchableguy]

A few states in India force revenue and annual growth quota on the alcohol sellers because they are dependent on the tax revenue.

[bicijay]

I mean, but the cost to society can be a very relative figure while the amount received from taxes are exact.

[s3r3nity]

Cue the Ryan Reynolds meme: "...But why??"

I've recently started my path towards sobriety (5 months next week) and I feel significantly healthier than I have ever felt over the past few decades of drinking.

I feel empathy for similar folks in my position in Japan: it's already difficult enough with liquor ads almost everywhere (e.g. I see them all the time in YouTube, and I don't have recourse to tell them that I find that whole category of ads inappropriate for someone trying to fight temptation like that) but I can't imagine how difficult it would be if the _government_ is pressing you to drink more.

[ta988]

Congrats on your 5 months. From what colleagues told me the peer pressure is really high too.

[causi]

How grotesque. The purpose of taxes on alcohol is to discourage drinking. They should regard the current situation as a triumph.

[AtlasBarfed]

oh you, so idealistic

The main reason marijuana has political oomph to get decriminalized is that it becomes a revenue source. Once a couple states started minting money in decriminalization, the other states hopped on board with great enthusiasm.

It comes down to a cost / revenue perspective. Alcohol and many drugs are profit centers.

Cigarettes? Not a profit center in the end, so heavy discouragement. Well, probably. I think vaping will become a lot more accepted by governments if it is true that nicotine itself isn't where the health problems are.

[nazgulsenpai]

If they wanted to discourage drinking they would raise the legal drinking age or institute bans. "Sin taxes" have always been about revenue.

[bamboozled]

Legalise weed in Japan.

Young people want to smoke weed. CBD is a huge growing market in Japan.

[darkteflon]

Sadly, that’ll never happen. Weed consumption is treated as a moral failing of epic proportion here, on par with violent crime. CBD products are treated differently because the right people can’t make money off of something that will grow in your yard.

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

Given the importance of hemp in Japan historically, I also think this would be a great move. An example of Japan’s former reverence of cannabis: The sumo uniform is made of hemp.

[poulsbohemian]

I saw the headline and thought “well, that’s one way to increase the birth rate…”

[chrischen]

Nope, doesn't work because there's physically no place to do it. You can book a temporary hotel but it's not cheap.

[hericium]

Japan, start by teaching your youth the truth about Japan's WWII atrocities. They'll start drinking.

[sudden_dystopia]

Could it also be due to the fact that they have an aging population crisis and young people uninterested in dating? What better way to get young people to procreate then to get them drunk?

[przefur]

Well, that doesn't sound surprising. I'm glad that my country have gotten past soviet-era drinking. Nowadays the issues are just about the whisper marketing on social media which I hope soon will be regulated.

[fomine3]

Japan national tax agency is known for stupid alcohol tax. They set beer tax high, then local alcohol brands started developing fake beer to avoid higher tax. It's completely meaningless development, that uses alcohol companies' develop resource but not competitive for overseas selling. Now it's going to be changed. http://kansai-odyssey.com/japanese-beer-happoshu/

[m3kw9]

Smells like this was done by heavy lobbying from the alcohol industry

[mariojv]

Putting aside the ethics of this at the moment which other comments cover, I wonder if at this stage the lower sales have anything to do with the continued restrictions on tourism, or if tourists make up a negligible amount of alcohol sales.

I looked it up the other day, and you can technically visit Japan as a tourist, but you have to book a guided package tour through an agency. It seemed like the guide has to be with you everyday.

[kire456]

It wasn't like that when I visited a few years ago. We just booked a hotel, got on a plane and went there. I can't find this requirement on their COVID page either. Do you have a link?

[throwaway290]

So the government refuses to let tourists in because COVID is dangerous, but has no problems slowly poisoning own citizens for that juicy alcohol tax money.

[civilized]

Hmm... isn't the usual justification for a special tax on alcohol that it's an undesirable activity? A "sin tax"?

[schroeding]

Not always, sometimes the justification is just an honest "we need money" - e.g. the German tax on sparkling wine was put in place to pay for the battleships of the navy.

The Imperial German Navy of Wilhelm II. In 1902. Still in place. :D

[wollsmoth]

Seems like it'd be easier to raise taxes?

[ip26]

If they can reshape their alcohol culture, perhaps they could improve the declining birthrate problem at the same time!

[bigodbiel]

If Abe’s “Have More Sex” appeals didn’t work, maybe “Have More Drunk Sex” will.

[franciscop]

I guess the CNN has a more serious tone than the story I share yesterday of the same on SoraNews, but duplicate?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32495883