...exchanging a kiss.... the couple there to be in the future will actually both drink from the same
sake cup.... Japanese people actually love beer there's a lot of Japan only beer
there is a famous drinking culture chime here in Japan it goes like this
Hey guys and girls on ask Japanese it's CathyCat greetings from sunny Tokyo today
now you might know about some very Japan specific types of alcohol for example the rice wine
sake and similar other wines and the sake products that are being produced here in Japan
shoju and similar which ones do you know let us know in the comments right away
we're going to talk about some of the good and the bad things of alcohol in Japan today
Rice wine: sake in Japan for example is a very special part of Japanese culture
there are over 140 000 different types of sake labels here in Japan and some of them
are still brewing their sake in the traditional way in the traditional warehouse the traditional
barrel with traditional methods and some prefectures in Japan are super proud of the
sakura they produce we've actually have done a couple of videos on that here on Ask Japanese.
When Japanese people travel from one prefecture to the other
some make it actually part of their journey to always try the sake the local produced sake
of that region, there are sake tasting sessions and sake has become such a big part also of the
religion in Japan for example in shintoism and for weddings instead of exchanging a kiss
the couple there to be in the future will actually both drink from the same sake cup ....when you go to
a Japanese shrine there might be loads and loads of sake barrels on the entrance way towards the
shrine with different labels on them as well or when you actually go and in the new year's
you celebrate and when you purify yourself sake is also drank to purify yourself on the new years
You can buy alcohol in almost any convenience stores all around the clock so 24 hours seven you
can go and get yourself some alcohol and in many places of Japan it's actually okay to drink on the
streets so we brought a couple of things from the convenience store this for example let's go okay
i'm Merman and people first go "oh Germany you like beer" I don't really drink beer but Japanese people
actually love beer there's a lot of Japan only beer brands and such as Asahi and they actually
have the Asahi right now in a spring special edition that has cherry blossom sakura on it
It doesn't really taste of cherry blossom but this is a special edition for the hanami season
when people sit under the cherry blossoms have a picnic and they usually drink alcohol with that
so that's a usual sight. "Horoyoi" Chu-hi or for example "Strong zero" are the type of
alcopops that you can get in any convenience stores too and this
one here for example starts at three percent and then the strong zero actually goes up to
nine percent seem to be quite strong and they mix some very sweet flavors together with alcohol
has been a debate about those recently but this ones are very very popular and the next one here
now this one looks like a milk pack because it even has like a little straw in it and you can
see some tiny little demons on it guess what these ones are actually not milk packs this one here is
Japanese sake the demon slayer sake has nothing to do with the demon slayer anime
I gotta drink now?
What outside?
itadakimasu
(those are extra sound effects and not real)
(this is to demonstrate that drinking is legal on streets in Japan)
On many places and streets in Japan you can just drink outside
and you can sometimes even find alcohol in vending machines on the street
In 2019 18,000 people got actually carried by the ambulance into the hospital for acute alcohol
intoxication but what's really interesting is that 50% of these people were in their 20s why
what's more is that these people usually get put into hospital in March April August and December
so why are those months so high? Now most of these young people that get carried there are
actually students yes students in March April August and December correlate with certain times in
their holidays and also certain festivities that are being held March April is usually the entrance
or the exit of universities and August is the summer holidays and December is usually the time
when there is end of year parties where everyone comes together and celebrates the end of the year
now in Japan you're only allowed to start drinking from when you're 20 so you cannot even with 19 or
18 go and buy alcohol even if for example you're a foreigner and you're allowed to drink in your
country from a younger age when you come to Japan you're not allowed to drink until you're 20. but
think about it once you are 20 and you go to maybe certain university events or maybe
join a company there will be a lot of events that kind of facilitate the drinking culture
so for example if you join a company there is a thing called Shinjin kangeikai which is like
a welcome party to the newcomers we do that here in Japan to welcome the new people into the office
it used to be that people do it with alcohol but nowadays some people just have like a little lunch
party without alcohol... especially in companies alcohol is often used as an important tool
for communication and that's how the word nomination started arising so "nomu" to
drink and communication nomination means certain communication you have while you're drinking and
since Japanese culture is very reserved you sometimes don't speak out and you don't speak
what's on your mind those kind of drinking parties with the office are almost mandatory because you
get the chance to spend a bit more private time with your colleagues maybe speak your mind about
certain projects and are allowed to speak out, you kind of get a little bit of a leeway once you're
drunk and you kind of get forgiven a couple of things even if you maybe say something negative
it's okay in that kind of environment, so at some of these drinking events there was a big scandal
or what happened in in the years up until recently is that it was a lot of "aruhara" alcohol harassment
meaning you kind of got forced to drink with your colleagues in the sense of like "what you're not
drinking? Come you should drink more" or something and that some people were pushed to drink over
their limits and if people turned down drinks it was like "oh you're kind of not" you know like
a "spoil sport" you're not being fun and that kind of thing so some people kind of felt like they had
to drink in order to a get like a good connection with their superiors and be you
be there and maybe get them you know because you were at this event you might get that one or
the other job that kind of thing so people were drinking over their capacity and especially young
people since they are the lowest in the hierarchy are the ones who are easier to get pushed over and forced
to drink, now that is luckily changing in recent years, the government has picked up on this issue
and it's getting pushed and pushed more and more not to pressure the young people to drink over
their capacity... so during these drinking dos a lot of young Japanese people get pressured
to drink more than their capacity and due to that now universities and even some companies have an
anti-intoxication program meaning "we're not cool with this this shouldn't be happening" and
they make people aware of it so no more of that funny business... but for some people the damage
is already done which means years of drinking in company, kind of forced to drink with your company
have left damage on some Japanese people and some of them actually started getting addicted to it
now before 2020 the rate of alcoholism in developed countries was actually declining
however in Japan it was still on the rise... now in 2013 around 1.9 million people in Japan were
alcohol abusers and only around 40-50,000 people actually got treatment for that and
that's probably why we see so many Japanese people on pictures passed out in the train
on the platform on the seats on the floor of the train there's a lot of that people going
home I mean sometimes I just see a businessman who's on his way home has this kind of beer
and he's like in the train and he cracks open his can and it looks really tired and goes like
but then we have the extremes of the young people and older people completely being
passed out in the train and people have to call the train staff and similar things like that to
help them out and I've seen it everyone who's lived in Tokyo has seen it now Japan is
said to be a country that is super strict on drugs but kind of very lenient on alcohol in that thing
so that's maybe also a reason why some people don't actually go out and get the help that they
need and unfortunately alcohol is generally linked in Japan to domestic violence and even suicides
and another thing I find kind of curious is that if you are not 20 you can still serve alcohol so
you can like work in a bar from like 18 19 and serve alcohol but you're not allowed to drink it
yet um there are a couple of scandals and there where a couple of scandals well in the talent
you know fame celebrity industry one they would go for drinks and a younger person wasn't quite
20 yet was then encouraged by the person who is older than 20 to go and drink with them and
that made a huge scandal actually a male idol lost his entire career because he was kind
of pushed to drink, he drinked, he drank even though he wasn't 20 yet I think he was 19 or 18
and he lost his entire career because of that and so that is not seen very lightly but once you go
over the threshold of 20 years then people are actually actually very very open to the
drinking culture here... there is a famous drinking culture chime here in Japan it goes like this
"drink drink drink drink"
but that again it actually facilitates that drinking culture to push the pressure of
everyone to drink and you probably know it from your culture too that kind of peer pressure this
kind of chants and times to get people to drink, now in Japan there's also another saying which is
Sake ha nonde mo nomareru na
and that means you can drink sake but do not get swallowed up by sake meaning enjoy it but
don't overdo it so everything in moderation like we talked about it before there are wonderful
types of alcohol here in Japan but the drinking culture definitely with the pressure the hierarchy
and the cultural environment where it's kind of "okay" hopefully it's now going through a change
and as you've seen it when I have been spoken about it lots of universities and companies
are now trying not to put the pressure on the young people to not damage them in the future
I hope you guys don't struggle with this but if you do please get some professional help this is
a serious situation lots of terrible things are happening because of alcohol so please
please get some professional help and depending on which country you are in
and yeah that was our video for today that was it with another video here from Tokyo I hope you
have a lovely day stay healthy stay stay "genki" full of energy and I hope I catch you soon with
another video here on ask Japanese don't forget to subscribe if you haven't seen us already it would
be lovely to have you here on the Ask Japanese team and give us a like if you enjoyed this
video and a comment is always appreciated maybe let us know which type of Japanese sake you like
or if you ever had a trouble with this kind of situation share it with us I hope you're all good
Also we took a little behind the scenes video here from our studio today for all our Ask
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you