It’s one of many hottest new developments in Japan: Bars with out booze. Raising glasses of non-alcoholic wine, millennial clients say they do take pleasure in the actual factor, however solely on particular events.
“I’m not worried about my health, but I’d rather spend the money on nice meals,” mentioned scholar Manaka Yoshii.
Non-alcoholic bars are beginning to take off in Japan, in style particularly amongst youthful Japanese. And that is giving the nationwide authorities a hangover.
The so-called “sober-curious” motion has shocked officers in Japan, the place a lot of life revolves round consuming, peaking throughout events like cherry-blossom viewing. Office consuming events have lengthy been thought-about important to firm team-building.
The most up-to-date survey, from 2016, discovered Tokyo alone was full of practically 30,000 bars and pubs.
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But with greater than 90% of younger Japanese reporting they drink not often or by no means, non- or low-alcohol beer and liquor is the place the expansion is. Even beer behemoth Asahi has opened a bar catering to the alcohol-averse.
With tax income from alcoholic drinks drying up, down 30% in current many years, the federal government launched a widely-mocked marketing campaign searching for concepts on tips on how to get younger Japanese consuming once more.
At Maruku Café, bartender Suzumo Sakurai serves an underserved market: teetotallers of all ages thirsting for an area pub with out the liquor. The authorities’s drink-more marketing campaign, he mentioned, is tone-deaf.
“I think it’s a terrible idea,” Sakurai mentioned. “It’s like trying to get people to smoke more.”
Japan is a group-oriented society, the place getting alongside has usually meant going together with consuming, the results seen on trains and metropolis streets.
“Japan has a long tradition of bonding over alcohol. But people are starting to wise up,” Sakurai mentioned.