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Japan Wants Young People To Drink More Alcohol
| The "Sake Viva!" campaign, overseen by the Nippon National fucking Tax Agency, invites participants to submit ideas on how to "get young people hooked on booze" through new services, promotional methods, products, designs and even sales techniques using artificial intelligence or the metaverse. The competition is aimed to "appeal to the younger generation and to revitalize the declining alcohol industry."
| About 30% of japanese people in their 40s to 60s drink regularly, meaning three days or more per week -- compared to just 7.8% of people in their 20s.
"In this way, the decline in drinking habits year by year is thought to be having an effect on the shrinking of the domestic market," the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/18/asia/japan-tax-alcohol-competition-intl-hnk/index.html
| Of all the horrible senile ideas this is one of them. They are encouraging young people to do something that is expensive, unhealthy, addictive, and can lead to unwanted pregnancy (among many other regretful outcomes). And the japanese tax agency push for all this in the name of revenues??
It's funny to see the young folk constantly being based by old people while indulging in fewer vices and being better educated. Young people don't *need* to drink more.
| Japan is gonna pull a russia and make their population cripplingly addicted to alcohol
| >>889610 I think it already was. In a drunked rage older generations beat their kids enough that kids aren't interested in repeating that mistake
| A co-worker of mine worked for about four years in Japan. He told me that his liver was about to collapse, since he and his japanese colleagues (all in their late 30s/early 40s) were drinking each day after work in a bar. His wife finally pushed him to change the job and country.
| >Can lead to unwanted pregnancy
Great! Will help fix their birth rates
| It makes sense if you want to sustain societal cohesion.
| >>890338
Nah, you're not making any sense.
On paper, it makes sense to tax so-called "vices." People are going to buy their addictions, government makes money, politicians get to crow about either "punishing" people who partake or how they're using the funds responsibly depending on their personal views, everybody wins.
| The problem is that when you're simultaneously pushing people to cut back on usage of them for health reasons, as well as occasionally taxing them into the stratosphere, people stop buying them. This is a good thing for society since we want fewer smokers and heavy drinkers and the like, but ends up causing issues like this where a government has gotten dependent on the revenue stream and suddenly either had to promote it again or figure out alternatives.
| >This is a good thing for society since we want fewer smokers and heavy drinkers and the like
I don't think that's true for Japan though. Isn't heavy drinking pretty normal as part of corporate culture there? I would assume it was just taxed because it was largely a consumer product, or maybe as a holdover from American occupation.
| >>3204a5 exactly, it's already pretty cheap to get trashed on the regular from my understanding. If you took away their drinking work culture I'm sure they'd have a sandyhook everyweekend
| >>890542
>Isn't heavy drinking pretty normal as part of corporate culture there?
Just because it's common it doesn't make it good for society, does it?
| >>cd73e6 the point being made is that keeping your people liquored up can be seen as a rational decision to maintain societal cohesion on the part of the government. Morally bankrupt yes, but not inherently irrational.
As much as it is a cultural element drinking heavily and being an unhappy suicidal country probably goes hand in hand too.>>3204a5
| >>890699 >>890789 both true, I just meant that I think their government doesn't care much about drinking as a moral issue. and they're encouraging it as economic policy and to uphold tradition, not taxing it to prevent it.
| >>890824
I agree with that but I still don't understand why you think it's good for society be so dependent on an unwanted revenue steam. Isn't it better to find alternatives?
| >>890870
It's easy to say that, but there's not an infinite number of ways to make money. And you have to consider *everyone* who suffers from the lack, farmers, truck drivers, distillery staff, on down to bar tenders & wait staff.
Alcohol is a huge industry, world wide, and not as in "megacorp" huge so much as huge number of people make their living directly or indirectly from it.
| >>972e31 true, a bit extreme but it reminds me of banning child labor or the black market in india. It would be best to do until you realize their economies are extremely dependant on those things. Though they do it out of necessity.
But that being said I wouldn't be surprised if there was a suntory distillery executive greasing the palms of some officials.
Shit is still wild tho, like imagine being the marketing team trying to get nerds to drink. Waifu themed whiskeys inbound.
| >>890876
Waifu themed sake has been a thing for a while. But so far it's been more of a limited collection run sort of thing.
Just need some cutesy bottle designs.
Put glass makers to work too.
| >>890871
They're gonna have to find alternatives anyway because the young people have spoken. Like every economy you'll have to adapt to a changing market, and this market is saying no.
| Alcohol is literally poison.
It is also a more energy dense fuel than gasoline...
They could just distill their rice wine to an obscene amount and run their vehicles on it.
Engines run cleaner on moonshine.
| >>890915 I agree with this. Free market fucks always preach against regulation until their industry is suffering. Can't play both sides.
| Gotta be honest, every time I read statements like this >>dac34c >>e053d4 it just sounds like the college commies I met in university who didnt have to pay for a thing in their lives because their parents paid for everything, including their 6 year bachelor's degree in art.
I understand it's a valid point, but the presentation always comes off as whiney and out of touch online.
| It's the "it's your own fault you're poor, since you wound up a bartender." / "You dont deserve to a job you enjoy " implication.
Brewing alcohol is interesting. Bartending can be a lot of fun & a fulfilling career. And who cares of it's poison? Everything fun is bad for you if you overindulge, but that doesn't mean people should be scorned for enjoying it.
| >>9d4089
I agree with you. But the main problem is another. It's allright that people drink alcool, but they should learn how to drink responsably.
One cocktail in saturday's evening is good, few bottle of whiskey every fucking day is not.
Anyway, for me is better not to drink. I used to do so years ago, but now I find it pointless. It cost a lot of money, health and when I drunk I lose control and do a lot of shitty stuff.
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| The japanese domestic alcoholic beverage market is shrinking due to demographic changes such as the declining birthrate and aging population, and lifestyle changes due to the impact of Covid-19. The government's solution? Launch a contest to find new ways to encourage young people to drink more.