See below for previous entries in the Beer in Japan series:

Part 1 - Availability; Taste
Part 2 - Pseudo-beers; Pricing
Part 3 - Marketing; Uniqueness
Part 4 - More uniqueness

Beer Trivia

Following my previous Reblogging Japan post about kids’ beer, here’s a TV ad for the product from YouTube.

The Product: You need to be 20 years old to legally buy alcohol in Japan, but that hasn’t stopped the Sangaria company bringing out kodomo no nomimono (lit:children’s drink), a drink they basically market as beer for kids. Admittedly the product doesn’t contain any alcohol, but the fact that it’s blatantly portrayed as imitation beer means it’s the kind of thing you’d never find in a western country. (more…)

More uniqueness
Closer inspection of Japan’s wide range of canned and bottled beers reveals a couple of other unique attributes relating to packaging. Firstly, the country’s helpful attitude towards visually-impaired people(1) is evident on the top of all beer cans in the form of a Braille character next to the ring pull. This is to warn them that the can contains alcohol, so you can’t trick visually-impaired people into getting drunk (spoilsport breweries!).
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Too lazy or too wasted to pour yourself another beer? Never fear, the Asahi beer robot* is here!

*Batteries not included. And by the looks of this video, decent beer not included either.

Marketing
In the absence of price-related special offers to use as a marketing tool (see Beer In Japan - Part 2), Japanese beer companies have to resort to other methods to boost sales. One of the most interesting ways to do this is to cash in on the national obsession with the four seasons, and the breweries do this with gift sets and limited edition seasonal beer brands.

Beer gift sets are popular during the gift-giving seasons of summer (ochūgen) and winter (oseibo), and consist of several cans of beer nicely presented in a cardboard box with a see-through plastic lid. These gift sets are sold at a rip-off price – higher than the cost of buying the beer cans individually – reflecting both the emphasis placed on aesthetic appeal in Japan (seen in everything from food presentation to Zen gardens) and the importance of gift giving in forging and maintaining social relationships.
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My friend Geoff Ries sent me these photos of a Christmas tree he made with Heartland beer bottles. A good way to recycle beer bottles and a good way to celebrate the festive season! 10 out of 10 for creativity.

4 Japanese Beer TV Ads Featuring Harrison Ford

After the global success of The Fugitive in 1993, Harrison Ford went on to make a series of beer commercials in Japan the following year. At the time still the biggest thing since sliced bread, he was the perfect frontman for Kirin’s ‘Mr Beer’ campaign, which showed him drinking beer with Japanese people in assorted Japanese settings:

Drinking in a Yakitori-ya

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Pseudo-beers
In addition to producing several brands of beer each, the major breweries also produce numerous pseudo-beers, a concept that is unique to Japan. Since beer tax is only applicable to beverages with a malt content of over 67%, these pseudo-beers are brewed with a lower malt content to avoid this tax and appeal to people drinking on a limited budget. (more…)

The best things I’ve found on other people’s blogs recently:

I found the picture above and more information about kodomo no nomimono kids’ beer on the kilian-nakamura.com blog and this myspace.com blog. Quite understandably the kids in the photos seem rather genki. Apart from the surly one in the top right of this photo who presumably just heard he’s missed last orders.

Another product that must also have been a hit with kids is ‘Bilk’, pictured on the left. Made by brewing beer from milk, Japan Probe has the full story.

Finally, continuing on the subject of beer, I also found this great photo of a frozen beer bottle that exploded in a freezer.

Check out these other beer-related articles: Slang Expression #5 - Turbo Shandy, Beer and the Mother Tongue, Beer In Japan - Part 1 and Beer In Japan - Part 2.

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.

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