Japan wants young people to drink more alcohol
cnn.com
cnn.com
> "We need to boost Japan's economy! What should we do?'
> -"Well we could let tourists in to take advantage of the weak yen, bringing in billions of dollars of revenue & saving businesses around the country?!"
> "NAH! Let's encourage younger generations to become alcoholics instead!"
>
I think that sums it up pretty well.
I understand bars, taxes, and the alcohol industry, feeling pain, but I don't feel it's very good for people to drink like they do.
They also tend to retire at sixty (so they are dealing with an aging population. Part of the reason that young people not drinking so much, is a problem, is because there are a lot fewer of them).
Me mum was English, and I loved me fried bread...
A prototypical Japanese breakfast is rice with pickles and smoked fish; maybe some Natto (never warmed to that).
Japan Men 15.58, Women 4.93
United States Men 15.44, Women 4.69
I would sometimes spend two weeks, over there, and every weeknight was like that.
Thank Cthulhu for public transport.
Lunches are a different matter entirely. They would wolf down their meal in ten minutes. Not a drop of alcohol, until the day was done. Lots of energy drinks; even before the US had them.
Aaahnold made some money, doing Japanese energy drink ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLe826lyao
In comparison Koreans will nearly always drink alcohol on a daily basis and to a stronger concentration than what Japanese drink - even the Koreans in Japan.
I'm from a wine-producing region in Europe and I would not consider this normal in any way. Not even my parents drink that much, and they have a dedicated wine cellar.
60 liters per year =
1.15 liters per week =
164ml per day
That is a not 2-3 glasses nor the "couple of glasses" I was calling out - that is what I would describe as "one generous glass" or ~1.3 UK standard wine glasses of 125ml.
Tokyo is Type A++. Seriously high energy.
* Many places do "all you can drink deals" sure, students and ying people use this to go crazy but I feel like older people are sensible and just treat it as a way to not worry about prices/splitting the bill.
* Alcohol is very available and very cheap. A bottle of coca cola and a 9% lemon drink are more or less the same price in a convenience store. Spirits and sake are cheap.
* Drunkenness is fairly common but violences is rare. I often see people falling over in the street making merry, or vomiting in the street in less merry moments. I've almost never seen a fist fight, which would be sadly common in the UK.
That's a big % of their economy. However some googling reveals that [1]
> Summing up the costs of each component of the overall cost to society, the total cost of alcohol abuse was estimated at 6,637.5 yen billion, representing 1.9% of the gross national product in 1987, which was three times that of the national revenue from taxes on alcohol beverages.
Which means this move may do more harm than good.
I've recently started my path towards sobriety (5 months next week) and I feel significantly healthier than I have ever felt over the past few decades of drinking.
I feel empathy for similar folks in my position in Japan: it's already difficult enough with liquor ads almost everywhere (e.g. I see them all the time in YouTube, and I don't have recourse to tell them that I find that whole category of ads inappropriate for someone trying to fight temptation like that) but I can't imagine how difficult it would be if the _government_ is pressing you to drink more.
The main reason marijuana has political oomph to get decriminalized is that it becomes a revenue source. Once a couple states started minting money in decriminalization, the other states hopped on board with great enthusiasm.
It comes down to a cost / revenue perspective. Alcohol and many drugs are profit centers.
Cigarettes? Not a profit center in the end, so heavy discouragement. Well, probably. I think vaping will become a lot more accepted by governments if it is true that nicotine itself isn't where the health problems are.
Young people want to smoke weed. CBD is a huge growing market in Japan.
There are all types of weird laws about hemp farmers having to be careful not to breathe in the smoke when burning off during autumn harvests etc :)
That this isn’t common knowledge is more anecdata of what I am talking bout.
Give them better employment opportunities, better work culture, ways to save money, home ownership... But nah, the problem is surely that they aren't drinking enough.
I looked it up the other day, and you can technically visit Japan as a tourist, but you have to book a guided package tour through an agency. It seemed like the guide has to be with you everyday.
General notice:
For entry measures, countries of entry are divided into 3 categories (blue, yellow and red). The entry modalities and visa regulations are then based on the colours.
Blue = Tourism allowed with visa
Yellow/ Red = Tourism not allowed
The categories are reviewed at regular intervals and countries can be reassigned to a different category in the event of a new review, which means that relaxations can be withdrawn again if necessary.
Germany is currently Category Blue.
NOTE!
Visas can only be applied for if a travel agency/travel company based in Japan acts as guarantor and registers with the Japanese Ministry of Health (see below).
At the moment, an application is only possible for package/group tours organized by a travel agency based in Japan as well as with continuous group guidance on site without individually plannable days as well as only with a locally resident tour guide. Individual tourism is not possible.
The Imperial German Navy of Wilhelm II. In 1902. Still in place. :D
It’s only recently there’s been talk of banning weird practices like the mandatory hair dying and underwear colour enforcement for female students in schools.
Fuuuuuu
That's... not better. Not even remotely better.
> it's actually not true.
"Seira fuku (セーラー服 ) is a common style of uniform worn by female middle school students, occasionally by high school students, and even rarely by elementary school students. It was first introduced as a school uniform in 1920 in Heian Jogakuin (平安女学院) and 1921 by the principal of Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University (福岡女学院), Elizabeth Lee. "
Knee length - a common length - is relatively short. It's no mini skirt, but I regularly see men's swim trunks that would cover more leg than those skirts do.
Edit: Love to know the reason for the down vote here. I don't know of a single modern democratic country on earth where it would be ok for people to be forced to have their hair died black. Correct me please.
It raises the question why you think the government would stop doing "Bad thing" if that's what the voters want.
Relevant: https://japantoday.com/category/national/tokyo-public-school...
So, if you are a school child with brown, red, or blond hair, it is likely you will be forced to dye your hair black.
Some Japanese are born with brown hair, it's rare but it happens, they'd be forced to die their hair black.
Is that being... controlled?
WTF.
That's America too and it's working great??? America in 2022 is super mega fun place #1. I don't get your point.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E6%B0%91%E5%85%9A%E3...
In any system there will both people who are trying to take advantage of the rules in place. To combat that, you add bureaucracy to attempt to put checks and balances along the way. Some groups will still succeed and get government sponsored rules that may not necessarily be in the public's best interest.
Corporate greed is an pretty strong incentive for abuse and lobbing of a government system. But greed exists even without private corporations.