![Asahi Brewery Hakata 2017-10-04 (24131592108)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Asahi_Brewery_Hakata_2017-10-04_%2824131592108%29.jpg)
Beer in Japan mostly comes from the country's four major breweries,
Asahi
Asahi (朝日, 旭, or あさひ) means "morning sun" in Japanese and may refer to:
Cities
* Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards
* Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'')
* Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'')
Towns
* Asahi, Aichi (旭 ...
,
Kirin,
Sapporo
( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...
and
Suntory
(commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese 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 makes Japanese whisky. Its ...
, which mainly produce
pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...
s around 5%
ABV
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
. Beer is immensely popular, far ahead of
sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; 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 indee ...
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 (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewe ...
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 germinated cereal grain that has been dried in a process known as " malting". The grain is made to germinate by soaking in water and is then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.
Malted grain is used to make beer, wh ...
, called ''
happoshu'' (literally, "bubbly alcohol") or non-malt , have captured a large part of the market, as tax is substantially lower on these products.
Microbreweries
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
have also become increasing 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 othe ...
.
Craft beer bars and pubs are also popular in Japan's major cities, with
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
and
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
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 second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
, which opened in 2015. Industrial brewery Sapporo also released a craft line in 2015.
History
Although the tradition of
sake brewing long pre-dates European contact,
beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
is thought to have been first introduced to
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in the 17th century during the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
by
Dutch traders. However, beer was not widely available until the end of the 19th century, with the signing of the
Treaty of Kanagawa
The Convention of Kanagawa, also known as the Kanagawa Treaty (, ''Kanagawa Jōyaku'') or the Japan–US Treaty of Peace and Amity (, ''Nichibei Washin Jōyaku''), was a treaty signed between the United States and the Tokugawa Shogunate on March ...
in 1854 opening Japan to foreign trade.
As Japan reopened to foreign trade during the
Meiji period
The is 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 colonization ...
, imported beers such as
Bass Pale Ale 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 integrated beverages company. It is a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company, Limited.
Its major operating units include Kirin Brewery Company, Limited, Mercian Corporation and Kirin Beverages Company, Limited. Kirin is a member o ...
began in
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
in late 1869 as the Spring Valley Brewery, a private business established by
Norwegian-American
Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) 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 ...
,
William Copeland. The
Sapporo Brewery
is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. It was first brewed in Sapporo, Japan, in 1876 by brewer Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Toky ...
was founded in 1876 as a part of a government-directed development plan for
Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
.
Asahi Breweries
is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group 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 beverage business (4 ...
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.
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 (international spelling) or liter (American English 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 metre (m3). ...
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
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
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.
As of January 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%.
Beer vs. ''happoshu''
![Selection of Japanese beer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Selection_of_Japanese_beer.jpg)
Brewed alcoholic beverages in Japan are labelled and taxed according to their malt content (i.e., amount of alcohol derived from
malted
Malting is the process of steeping, germinating and drying grain to convert it into malt. The malt is mainly used for brewing or whisky making, but can also be used to make malt vinegar or malt extract. Various grains are used for malting, mo ...
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
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
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
is a Japanese global beer, spirits, soft drinks and food business group 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 beverage business (4 ...
*
Kirin Company
is a Japanese integrated beverages company. It is a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings Company, Limited.
Its major operating units include Kirin Brewery Company, Limited, Mercian Corporation and Kirin Beverages Company, Limited. Kirin is a member o ...
*
Sapporo Brewery
is a Japanese beer brewing company founded in 1876. Sapporo is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. It was first brewed in Sapporo, Japan, in 1876 by brewer Seibei Nakagawa. The world headquarters of Sapporo Breweries is in Ebisu, Shibuya, Toky ...
*
Suntory
(commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese 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 makes Japanese whisky. Its ...
*
Orion Breweries
is the fifth-largest beer brewery in Japan, headquartered in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture. The company commands approximately 1% of the Japanese beer market, and controls 60% of the beer market on Okinawa.
History
Founded in 1957 in Nago, Okin ...
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
Dry or dryness most often refers to:
* Lack of rainfall, which may refer to
**Arid regions
**Drought
* Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages
* Dry humor, deadpan
* Dryness (medical)
...
. 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 (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
, 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 from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...
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 and drawn by . The manga's title is a portmanteau of the Japanese word for delicious, ''oishii'', and the word for someone who loves to eat, ''kuishinbo''. The series depicts the ...
'' (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 and microbreweries produce seasonal beers. Seasonal beers may be produced when fresh ingredients are available during ...
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 cuisine, Japanese steamboat (food), hot pot dishes, also known as one pot dishes and "things in a pot".
Description
Nab ...
'' (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, also spelled saké ( ; 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 indee ...
producers, restaurant chains, resort hotels or similar. Microbreweries in Japan produce various
styles of beer 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
*
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 provides 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 otherwise made. The fir ...
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 between ...
in Japan is 20 years old. In terms of
drinking culture
Drinking culture is the set of traditions and social behaviors that surround the consumption of alcoholic beverages as a recreational drug and social lubricant. Although alcoholic beverages and social attitudes toward drinking vary around the w ...
, beer drinking and opening formal
toast
Toast most commonly refers to:
* Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat
* Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken
Toast may also refer to:
Places
* Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States
Books
* '' ...
s 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 is a set of agreed, stipulated, or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms, or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.
In a social context, a convention may retain the character of an "unwritten law" of custom (for ex ...
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, three of the four major Japanese brands are available. These include Sapporo Draft, Kirin Ichiban (Number One, as opposed to the normal Lager which is not available), and Asahi Super Dry. 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 the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and Sapporo is produced at a
Sapporo-owned brewery in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Suntory beer is not available.
Orion Beer is also available, imported from Okinawa Prefecture. 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
* ''
Happoshu''
References
External links
Directory of Japanese Brewers (RateBeer.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer In Japan