Beer In Japan - Part 1
Availability
For people who prefer to drink at home in Japan, beer is available in off-licences (US=liquor stores), station kiosks and some supermarkets, from beer vending machines (now commonly with ID Card readers) until midnight, and at most konbini (convenience stores) 24 hours a day.
There are numerous local brands of beer, which are sold in a bewildering assortment of containers and sizes: 135ml, 250ml, 330ml, 500ml and 1000ml cans; 330ml, 500ml and 633ml bottles; and 1520ml home beer pump kits (complete with gas canister). In fact, I would hazard a guess that Japan has more sizes of beer container than any other country, as well as what must be the smallest container of beer for sale anywhere in the world.
Taste
Despite the apparent variety on offer, there is very little variation in taste among the most popular beers, a fact most likely due to the monopoly of the market by the four major breweries – Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory.
Among their flagship beer brands (Asahi’s Super Dry, Kirin’s Ichiban Shibori, Sapporo’s Black Label and Suntory’s Malts) there isn’t a single beer that stands out from the rest, and even Budweiser and Heineken (brewed under licence in Japan) share the same generic taste. In fact, so similar is the taste of the most popular Japanese beer brands that I doubt many people would be able to identify them in a Pepsi Challenge-style test.
People in other countries who enjoy Japanese beer might be reading this shaking their heads in disagreement - bear in mind though, that Japanese beers found outside Japan are brewed locally, to local tastes. As a result, I’ve found them to be much more palatable than their Japan-brewed counterparts, having a different taste but unfortunately a lower alcohol content.
Check out these other beer-related articles: Slang Expression #5 - Turbo Shandy and Beer and the Mother Tongue
October 17th, 2007 at 6:18 am
mmm…beer!
Hi! Like the site. Thanks for the link. I’ve just added you to my blogroll.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:52 am
i started to feel like im just drinking diet coke. it’s fizzy and it’s much much lighter compared to british beers.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I live in Los Angeles and I found out that I believe either Kirin or Asahi is brewed at the Budweiser plant in Van Nuys, about 15 miles North of L.A.
I am sure that does not mean you are drinking Bud when you drink the Japanese beer but it is a little dissapointing. It is technically not an import.
I personally like Ebisu beer.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:13 am
Ebisu is definitely the best of the widely-available Japanese beers, although the most expensive too. My favourite is Kirin’s Heartland (http://www.kirin.co.jp/brands/HL/index.html), but it’s difficult to find. It has mixed reviews on Beer Advocate (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/292/6379/) but this is perhaps because it tastes noticeably different from other beer in Japan.
February 5th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Great blog.
Been living in Japan for six months now and was looking for some info. You’ve pretty much cleared up all my questions.
-Michael
July 7th, 2009 at 3:25 am
I love Suntory’s summer beer campaign with Yukie and Mikie
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/suntory-beer-commercial-with-mikie-hara-and-yukie-kawamura/
July 13th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I really liked the local Japanese beers and found them much better than the UK brewed versions, when I came back to england and bought kirin, i found it tasted like carling, fosters, kronenbourg etc. which are all brewed under license in the UK. Perhaps this is just my subjective taste, nonetheless I prefer the Japanese brewed beers.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I am trying to identify all of the beers that are brewed under license in Japan, especially those that appear in cans. It seems to me that Loenbrau was brewed here with a formula that would not be allowed in Munich(Munchen).
October 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
@m.hazelrigg
All the beers brewed under licence in Japan that I’ve tasted share the same homogenous taste that the local brands have.
January 10th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Interesting article. Just FYI, a monopoly is a situation in which a single business controls the market; you mean an oligopoly.