Drinking in Japan

My question is about the usage of alcohol, and how it's use is portrayed in anime and the general experience of me and my friends in Poland. Here the drinking age is 18, but people will usually have their first drinking experiences in middle school when they're 15-16. And by experiences I don't mean getting a sip from their parents because usually it's outside the house, or when the parents are not around and usually with friends. Then alcohol starts appearing at parties, and many people will even get drunk when they're underage.

In anime on the other hand, people underage will never be portrayed as drinking and even when they are proposed to have a drink they won't except it, explaining they are underage (even though they will often be 18-19 years old, and the drinking age in Japan is 20). So I wonder if this type of image is presented because tv stations don't want to encourage drinking among young people or is it that young people pretty strictly obey the law in Japan and won't drink until they are 20?

I'm sure plenty of underage drinking goes on in Japan, just like it does anywhere else, but media tends to try and not have kids breaking those sorts of laws since it can make them look bad from the "Think of the children!" crowd. Better to avoid the hubub of being accused of poisoning the minds of the younger generation altogether.

I once bought drink in Japan. Their beer, especially Kirin, was rather good - light, with a mildly fruity bouquet. I bought some sake too, which came in a glass jar with a foil lid. It was perhaps the nastiest alcoholic drink I've ever had. Tasted like watered-down soy sauce.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Yeah, Sake is pretty shitty imo. I've had the opportunity to test the paint thinners of different cultures around the world, and Sake is one of the shittiest hard liquors I've ever had.

Ever had real Scotch or Buckie?

In all honesty though, I actually know very little about Japan's drinking culture.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Apparently it's common for salarymen to go out binge drinking together after work. That's about all I have to contribute on the subject.

Yes, I've heard that men drinking at bars together often (and drinking a lot in one night) is considered culturally normal there. Supposedly the reason being that their working lives are so stressful, the only way they can unwind at all is to booze it up at the end of the day. This might have been more the case in the past than it is now, though.

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I can't really say too much about underage drinking, since most of the people I went drinking with in Japan were older than 20. I think that it happens fairly frequently though, after all most young people in Japan aren't that noticeably different from young people everywhere. Besides since 20 is a ridiculously high minimum age for drinking, there are certainly a lot of 17-19 year olds who drink. I do think they are sort of strict about enforcing it in bars etc. so if you're younger than 20 you'll have to drink at home or at a friend's place. I certainly don't think the way it's portrayed in anime is at all congruent with reality. Really, young people declining alcohol because it's against the law? That would be rare, even in Japan. :p ''

That said, I do think that "underage" drinking is somewhat more frowned upon in Japan as opposed to say in Europe (there really isn't such a thing as underage drinking in Denmark, while you have to be 16 to buy alcohol and 18 to buy it at a bar, it's not illegal to drink alcohol at any age) and therefore also a little rarer. But it depends on the adults and the teenagers. I attended a house party at a Japanese family at some point, where they let their 16-year old drink quite a lot.

As for Japan in general, I think they very much have what I would call a "drinking culture". It is very common for all sorts of social gatherings to involve alcohol, which is probably why the izakaya is so popular. That said I didn't experience people doing binge drinking, more like 2-7 beers during an evening where you also get quite a lot of food (god, I miss izakayas).

As for sake, there are actually quite a lot of different kinds of sake (or nihonshu to be pedantic) with quite a lot of different tastes. I've never had one that tasted like soy sauce whatsoever though, so I'm puzzled by that description. A lot of westerners don't like the majority of sake though, finding it too sweet. Personally I quite like it. The best ricewine I ever had while living in Japan was Korean though. :p

''Actually on a side-note, it is my experience that the Japanese don't uphold laws they consider to be silly. I was told a whole lot of traffic laws by a serious looking cop at my school, not long after coming to Japan. Like, you have to bike on the left, you have to have lights on during the night (common in most countries I think), you're not allowed to hold an umbrella while driving you're bike and some other things. Most people just drove on whichever side they felt like and when it was raining the majority drove holding an umbrella (which I've never seen before coming to Japan). And a lot of people didn't have lights on either.

edited 12th Aug '13 11:47:44 AM by Mathias

It's culturally normal in Britain, too. Especially at the end of a weeks' work. By the way, Asahi beer is good stuff — I've seen their bottles in one or two anime. On that subject, the SOS Brigade get drunk during one of their adventures, an event that was changed in the Anime.

Keep Rolling On

It's not abnormal to go drinking after work..

The first thing I do when I come home after work is crack open a beer. Usually have 1-2 a night if I'm not partying. I don't really do liquor much though. I'm an endurance beer drinker.

Yebisu (black, by personal preference, but the normal is fine, too) from the Sapporo brewery. Stuff Kirin or Asahi: they're not in the same league.

And, there are a lot of different sakes. Some taste like stewed soy-sauce marinated with terps. Others are rather nice and flowery... and you get everything in-between. Also, if you happen to drink one that is meant to be served warm chilled, on your own head be it. And, visa versa: it can make a big difference. Shochu, however, with yakitori? I miss that something fierce at times. <wistful>

Edamame with beer, sochu or sake: can be a wonderful combo, if you're careful about it. And, much better than popcorn-and-beer to watch a movie with. Personal opinion.

Every country does things differently, but... we're all pretty much of a muchness. Or so I've found. The details might shift a bit, but not the basics. Heck: Japanese drinking culture came across as a mix of the British and the Swiss — do it as hard and in roughly the same circumstances as a Brit... to arcane rules like the Swiss do (with style points for the number of tropes you can tick and how you deal with it).

edited 12th Aug '13 3:14:15 PM by Euodiachloris

Fruity beer? I think an entire culture was just insulted.

Then again, I stopped drinking myself after I had to carry a passed out, barfing dude I hardly knew because of a "violation of public drunkenness". Back when I drank though, fruity drinks were mocked, excepting a few forms of wine or if you were a woman. Sometimes not even then.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

It doesn't mean the beer tastes like fruit juice, it means the aromatics added by the hops hint at fruit. It's the difference between smelling Tropicana from far away and drinking it.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

How was that your responsibility?

hashtagsarestupid

It's a military thing. When one person fucks up, then everyone gets punished for it ... even if the person doing the fucking up is stationed a couple hundred miles away, in the case of Japan. One person does something like get drunk and throw a trash can through a taxi windshield? Lower curfew times for everyone in his command. Dude on another base gets drunk and commits sexual assault? Stop selling alcohol on all bases in Japan. Yes, these are real examples just from the 18 months I was stationed there. So you see someone you know is military and drunk enough he could get in trouble for it? You get that guy back to base/ship pronto and avoid police both local and military along the way, because otherwise, his drunken shenanigans are going to fuck up your free time.

I disagree with this approach for a number of reasons, but that would be derailing more than I possibly have already.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

It was not military but it was public service and he (apparently) was in my group.

Tropicana is Florida orange right? I have never seen anyone mocked for just drinking orange juice, but mix it with beer and you are a pussy (unless you have a pussy, maybe). Orange juice and vodka was sometimes tolerated but only by a few people I knew.

Their children's cartoons always gave me the impression Japan took alcohol and drunkenness less seriously than people in the Americas (especially that big part under Canada and the one with the arrow flag that won't learn Spanish). I don't ever remember tasting a "sweet" Sake but maybe they have a higher tolerance to that kind of thing (socially)?

edited 14th Aug '13 2:27:46 PM by Cider

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

Belgium wants a word with you

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Cider, kindly drop the pretensions about what belongs in a beverage and what doesn't.

Scrumpy is decidedly a hard drink, though... what's the problem? Oh... you mean this problem? Yup. Not a cider. But, at least it's not Pocari Sweat. <gags> That stuff's horrid.

Seriously — it's vile. Never, ever, ever play vending machine roulette with a Pocari machine. It's not worth it. -_-