Thanks for this. That paper led me down a rabbit hole and I ended up with this:
Evidence of positive selection on a class I ADH locus
It seems unlikely that the selection was recent and associated with alcoholism, the modern phenotypic manifestation of the polymorphism.... Mycotoxins, from toxin-producing fungi found in moldy rice, can be converted by the host ALDH enzymes from protoxin to toxin, and the effects of mycotoxins can be further potentiated by ethanol. If the incidence of hepatic disease found in many East Asians, especially JPN, is related to the consumption of mycotoxins, then individuals carrying the deficient ALDH22 variant with lowered alcohol consumption would be selectively favored.*[1]
So it sounds like it isn't alcoholism that is being selected against, but instead resistance to mouldy rice born infections, which is correlated with this gene. That explains the geographic distribution quite well, too.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1821113/