Japan is Asking People To Drink More Alcohol To "Fix The Country" 

They’re attributing the drinking to a strong economy when really drinking is a side effect of a strong economy. Thats like buying a new house in hopes of getting a promotion at work

Japan is literally becoming like that meme "It hurt itself in its confusion"

This is probably more of a “protect special interest groups” move than a “save the economy” move

For a country that's supposedly long-term oriented, they have some strangely short-term solutions in mind.

“We don’t want to reopen the country because people will get covid but we’re totally fine with encouraging everyone to pack into tight places and go ham”

Literally everyone: Just open up the country and get that tourism money Japan: How about NO

A female government official (I forgot her name) brought this up and other problems with the Japanese government and said that the problem is that they are mostly old men who are out of touch with the problems/ignoring them. Like the solutions are easy but they are just going "Eh no."

I like how every time Joey shows us his phone, there is a different picture of Aki as his lock-screen. That's love right there.

Love a man doing his patriotic duty to save his country.

Someone should tell Japan about what happened to Russia in the 90's when everyone started drinking like mad....... (I mean that was because everything was falling apart and people decided drinking was the way to escape their daily problems, but having more of your populace be drunk is not going to fix your economy, and neither is promoting any other health-damaging habits if they had that as the next idea in mind....)

This article just makes me think of how the older generation always blames the new generation for ruining certain stuff in society. "You're not drinking enough!" "Millennials and Gen Z are so lazy!" "Nobody wants to work anymore!" "Stop buying Starbucks coffee and avocado toast, that's why you don't have savings, you suck at budgeting!" "Back in my day, I worked at a retail store and at the age of 20 I'm married, I have children, I bought a house and a car, pull up your pants and work harder!" I can easily make a BINGO of older generation blaming the newer generation.

Btw the fact that Japan thinks about even THIS before actually touching the tourism finally and realising that going from millions to zero in tourism is probably the issue, tells about the xenophobia on incredible levels and this is not coming through well with people. I can already see that interest is decreasing (still high but decreasing) because people get a sense that they are very much not welcomed. And so why would they want to go? They could go to Korea or Singapore. Also, if these are the measures, Japan will be more dangerous Covid spreading wise than other countries who adopted successfully with habits and attitude to the virus. So people will think twice because of that reason too.

And in 20-30 years, Japan will be wondering why the country has a serious alcohol addiction problem.

Here's another thing to add to the 'health conscious' aspect, how many young people today have seen the negative impacts of heavy drinking and alcoholism and dont drink much, if at all, as a result? Drunk parents beating up husbands/wives/kids is a trope for a reason.

Me (a slav): *starts packing my bags* My mother: What are you doing? Me: I'm going to save Japan.

Japan is trying realllly hard to avoid opening up to foreigners again and it honestly breaks my heart. They're just going to hurt themselves further if they encourage their youth to become drunkards. I initially understood them not wanting to open up to the world but now it's getting ridiculous

Japan should just start encouraging more Japanese companies to sell it’s domestic products internationally if it wants to restart its economy without opening its borders

So... fixing the economy by modernizing working ethics so peoples wouldn`t burn out of their work and do it better? - nah fixing the economy by modernizing equipment and improve efficiency by adopting new technologies? - nah fixing the economy by puting the younger generation on a needle of alcohol, which in the future can lead to an even greater deterioration in society as a whole? - YES Did i get it all right?

Just so you know, I'd be literally dumping fortunes into the japanese economy if I was able to navigate those official merchandise websites. Yes, the ones that are available ONLY IN JAPANESE

I’m glad you’re shedding light on this. And I’m also glad you waited a while to make these kind of videos or else you would’ve been cancelled real quick. Some people just want to stay locked down

I like how people drinking less alcohol is seen as a bad thing.

The icing on the shit sundae is that Japan had the perfect opportunity to boost alcohol sales in the past 5 years. But dropped the bloody ball so hard it left a crater. Japanese whiskey was a real big thing in the whiskey community because it was positively acclaimed. Lots of people are buying up Japanese whiskey to the point that if the bottle has kanji on it, chance is that it will sell. But there was a problem in the Japanese law when it comes to “what constitutes as Japanese whiskey”, turned out that it was extremely lax. Compared to American bourbon and Scotch from Scotland, which both have strict restrictions and upholding standard in order to label their liquor, Japanese company can source a random batch of whiskey from elsewhere in the world, bottle them in Japan, and it would still constitute as Japanese whiskey. This lead to a massive flood of subpar Japanese whiskey that startled the enthusiasts, and the OG makers like Suntory and Nikka are running out of juice. The regulations got revised for the better last year April, but the reputation has already been damaged; for goods that require aging like whiskey, it will take probably another decade for Japanese liquor makers to pick up the pieces.

I actually drank way more during the lockdown. I was bored and depressed. You know what makes time go by and makes me feel good? Getting drunk. (Not really, that’s just what my brain thought at the time.) From what I’ve seen, either during or just after the lockdowns, a bunch of people I know are trying to get healthy again, or are attempting to for the first time ever. That includes cutting down or even eliminating alcohol from their diets. I know after a year of wallowing in impeding doom and sadness, I put on the most weight I ever have before, so I did a 180 and now no longer stop at the liquor store on my way home from work to down a 6pack of IPA’s every Friday/ Tuesday/ whatever day I felt I needed the comfort.

Thanks Joey for putting up some news now e then. I’ve lived in Japan for 5 years I find it unrelatable society wise and I only learn about the perks from you e random channels of RU-vid lol. I cut wood and am an artist so I’m ok but it feels like a sad place in the cities.. I’m starting to feel like little by little it’s going to be the outsiders who are helping bring a revival to this absolutely beautiful but very old place…. I am just glad there’s people out here with a voice and new perspective.. your videos actually cheer and inform, it’s good to have perspective

Japan also strongly encourages employees to go drink after work or it's frowned upon if they don't show up. That and encouraging drinking in younger people is horrible. Alcoholism has ruined a lot of people's lives. Drink if you want but to promote drinking so much to younger people while being anti-drugs is silly to me. Weed is illegal in Japan but they promote alcohol. Makes sense.

According to an article in the Seattle Times back here in the states, there is no proven benefit to consuming alcohol, not even health benefits, and heavy drinkers are less likely to make good choices than those who don't. So given this decision in Japanese Bureaucracy, I'd say the politicians of the east are VERY heavy drinkers indeed...

Fun fact: Alcohol is classified as hard drugs by every government branch dealing with drugs and narcotics in almost every country in the world. So basically Japan wants every Japanese citizen to be a drug addict...

Japan: “let’s boost economy by drinking more!” Person with a brain: “what about the cost of a countrywide health decline?” Japan: “consequences? What are those?!”

It's really surprising to see this happen, it's in my country as well, but not as severe, when the government is ruled by OLD people who have never touched grass or doesn't even look or listen what their people need, this happens, like 100% it could even be a social experiment easily, so we'll see how it goes, because it is a cultural problem as well I'd say

I feel Japan is once again at a reoccurring cross road of whether to completely embrace openness or adopt a new Sakoku policy to closed itself off from the rest of the world again. Japan can either embrace openness by taking advantage of it's cultural global soft power and fully open up the country to tourists/investors to help bankrupt cities like Kyoto and experiment with new economic policies such as a 6 hour work day and a 3 day weekend to give the overwork depressed Japanese people some breathing room. Or they can appease the traditionalist to not disrupt the status quo social order and do short sighted quick fixes policies like this.

The leaders of Japan today are the ones experiencing their youth in the 70s~80s, which means they experienced the result of a sudden rise of economy and felt it for a long time before the bubble. I mean, it's like giving a bunch of rich kids who were born rich and spoiled by their parents, a high position in their parents company.

when I was younger I had my mind dead set on moving to japan once I graduated college. Now that I actually have graduated college and I learn more and more about japan, I’m not sure if I can actually picture myself living there lol

Well that's what you get when you have a government made entirely of elderly men who are very traditional and depend on what worked in the past to solve problems instead of allowing younger people into office or even listening to younger people. Like, I am not surprised in the least by any that you are sharing with us. Japan really had a bad government issue and it's just showing more and more as the world continues to go into crisis.

I love the irony of this when Oxford University in England, just released a study showing that there is NO safe alcohol consumption level before you're 40 years old. They found that consuming any amount alcohol, regardless of whether it's beer or hard liquor, before you're 40 years old does nothing but damage to your body and brain, and they think it's connected to dementia and Alzheimer's, so that's fun. Japan: "Drink more alcohol!! Help our society!!" England: "Actually don't you're just putting yourselves into an early grave and are gonna skyrocket the cost of your healthcare"

turns ZUN was actually singlehandedly improving the country with his drinking habits

U hit the nail on every point. Younger lawmakers needs to replace the older generation for the situation to improve.

The Japanese government really needs to look up the meanings of "causation" and "correlation"

Ironic how letting people in the country would likely boost both drinking economy and the country’s economy as a whole. They could not only solve the problem they perceive but also the one that affects them the most

Joey. Admittedly I have avoided your content and TT for years now. But that said, this video is indeed mirroring my own thoughts. I have lived here for six years now and I am ready to pull my hair out over all of this.

now that's so cool you put out this vid on my b-day! thanx Joey!!🥳🤘

Don't worry I'm sure they'll have an intelligent solution, like letting foreigners in and increasing the alcohol tax income simultaneously...by providing "guided drinking tours" for Australians.

I'm convinced Japanese economics is just real life boomer posting. "Young people have to just buy more stuff to stimulate the economy, shouganai"

Honestly, this just kinda reminds me of the sort of thing we were having to deal with in the UK with 'eat out to help out' and other short-sighted schemes which ultimately didn't help, for exactly the reason you mention a lot - It doesn't address the root of the problem at all. It's attempting to battle symptoms, not address causes, which is often a losing battle before you even start down that route.

Alcoholism is no joke. As a child with both parents being alcoholics I was emotionally neglected by my dad and physically abused by my mom. CPS was called multiple times by teachers and family friends. Now as an adult I’m in a relationship with a functioning alcoholic and it’s hell. Japan already has a weird workplace culture with alcohol. Encouraging this further is going to cause major harm. Harm to peoples bodies and family lives.

Joey: complaining about Japan wasting tax money Americans: "first time?"

It's like a snowballing of Japan's xenophobia in public (or maybe political?) consciousness. They're not even thinking about foreigners as a solution to so many of their problems, just "foreigner's aren't coming in" as a completely separate issue, unrelated to everything else that's going on with their economy. But because they're so against that idea, so many issues are snowballing.

Having lived in Japan for years doing my graduate studies, the whole AI/robots thing was a meme among foreign students. Low birth rates? Suicides high? Hikkimori? No one having kids? Unhappy marriages? Black companies? What if… we throw robots at it? Seriously though. In a world where policy makers seem increasingly out of touch with the citizens they legislate on behalf of, Japan particularly seems like it’s out of the loop. Personally, I think it’s because a lot of domestic issues in Japan stem from issues in the culture. And that’s to be expected-there is no perfect culture. But it’s basically taboo in Japan to suggest that traditional/cultural norms could possibly have a hand in any problems. I think the government is filled with old dudes shaking their fists in the air and wondering why Japan isn’t still in the 80’s and the youth are basically just trying to live as peacefully as possible (but also don’t really participate in the political process much, either). All that’s really left is to slap bandaids on wounds that will slowly bleed the country. Hypothetical AI is just Japan’s favorite bandaid.

keep pumping the news joey! I want more!!

Everyone else: "We should let tourists come back and take advantage of yen being worth less to boost the economy" Some people in Japan: "LEtS makE YoUnG pEOpLe gEt dRuNK"

Yeah, sure, when people are struggling to afford all three of rent, electricity/gas and groceries, sure they want to get onto the liver damage train... I keep running into these things and I'm really starting to wonder whether lead-based brain damage among the boomer set is a global thing rather than a local issue.

13:50 - Say less. Got my mouse over the plane ticket purchase on standby, waiting for the second they allow us in.

we can see Joey progressively losing his mind every new video xd honestly same..

Joey: Japan can't be more dumb Japan: Hold my beer... Japan Alcohol Analyst: Wait a minute....

This legit boggles my mind. Why on earth is the government trying to prop up and do the alcohol industries advertising for them? Shouldnt this stuff be up to each business to try and figure out how to attract more business?

Glad to see your WTF JAPAN series still going strong

So, 11 months later, how did this video age?

They are so blind. They (both government and companies) have no idea how their cultural products, whether manga/anime/games/etc, shaped entire generations of foreigners who would love nothing more than to visit / study / live in Japan even just for a year. Let alone everybody else who would love to come just for the history, landscape, and traditions. I lived for one year in Japan and I would drink 1 can of beer every night, more on the weekends. Like, that's what I normally do. And I was just one person. But no, let's pay taxpayer money to random young people so they can come up with ideas on how to make the *other* young people drink more, but strictly *alone in their apartments,* because izakayas are the devil incarnate. SMH

Right instead of letting people in make the younger generation alcoholics makes sense considering their future work life’s. They already have a perfect example of what happened when everyone’s an alcoholic it’s called the uk weatherspoons on Friday

Absolutely agree with you dude! And even if on it’s own, it’s like their drunk and or high.

America: Don't drink alcohol! ❌🍺 Japan: Drink alcohol! ⭕🍶🥂🍷🍻

What gets me is the fact that it’s yet another case of, “Blame the young people for a change in taste or culture” If the article had a quote of someone talking about Starbucks and avocado toast it’s basically it’s own freaking bingo card

Japan: "we have the most disciplined, respectful and polite population on earth" Also Japan: *"I COMMAND YOU TO MAKE MISTAKES"*

Thank you for being open and transparent regarding an obvious issue, I hope your stance will encourage more speakers to be more vocal and less diplomatic-cowardly. If there's something we badly, badly need, is more straight to the point, vocal banner bearers that would highlight issues and force our overlords into retrospection and action.

Live in Shiga and me and 2 of my friends took pictures of all the GO TO signs we came across. It was a really fun time.

First time I've heard a country encouraging people to drink alcohol. Part of me have a hard time believing this is true, but the same time I've seen plenty of stuff I thought were from The Onion that turned out true.

Can't wait for the shonen battle anime about mixing alcoholic drinks to get different super powers.

Love the video and keep up the great work joey

Just getting over a 30day bender. The hangover is not worth it! 😭😅🤣

It amazes me how a country that helped build the technological age (a good chunk of technology came from Japan.) Yet, they are struggling to understand the root of their problems and fix them, Japan's supposed to be a brilliant country, but over the past 2 years, they have shown their inability to solve issues like this.

I'm sorry to hear that Japan isn't making better decisions though I feel like a lot of governments tend to focus on the problem presented to them rather than try to get to the root of the problem. Early on in the pandemic, I was really proud of what Ontario was doing to help protect it's citizens. They were giving people $2000 a month to stay home ($600 of each month had to be paid back in taxes), they halted any rent and utility increases, and said that grocery prices wont increase even calling out small businesses that tried and so much more. But slowly after 2020 everything started going down hill, they gave up on trying to stop the spread, gave into demands, utilities and food have doubled or tripled, renters were getting kicked out of there homes in order for the landlords to almost double the original rent and gave up on actually keeping track of covid cases instead they are estimating the cases, so even if you want to avoid going out when the cases are high, you can't because you don't actually know. Plus so much more.

I don't know why seeing Aki as his lockscreen was so cute, yet funny. 🤣💕

Okay, Joey kept the lock screen as Aki's pic, it's like yes ofcourse but I thought he would have of something like guitar

I just had vivid flashbacks to the pandemic where, in my country Mexico, price of beer went up and it was called dry law for a while and the whole north half of the place went BAT SHIT and couple of weeks/months (I dont remember tbh) trucks full of beer made their come back and people went out CLAPPING as if they were doctors or some shit so... I don't know bout you guys...

I couldn't believe this when I saw it on Instagram lol, it's honestly pathetic to see how this is the country's solution to their problems

The lowball flex of Aki on the screen lock os just so sweet.

Who would want to listen to peer pressure from a grumpy robot who sounds like an angry drunk?

I’m certain there are people who have similar takes on this story. But as you and other Japan YTers have stated, Japan has this idea of communal harmony, where dissent and individualism aren’t appreciated or even discriminated. If anything, I’d say the government needs to understand that times are changing, and they need to prime the younger generations to plan for the future, rather than preserve the present.

The more or these videos you make it surprises me more and more how out of touch with reality the Japanese government is. And I thought my country was bad. Godspeed Japan o7

You are an inspiration, Joey, sacrificing your liver for your country. I salute you!

Joey casually plugging Aki right in the beginning

Look at joey being a good Japanese citizen by buying and drinking his share of alcohol.

Glad you're talking about this, I actually read a few articles that popped up in my news feed over the last week regarding the campaign and I think one other thing to point out is how dangerous this is to former alchoholics or those prone to falling into it. In the articles I mentioned I saw accounts of people who said that they were able to overcome or were basically forced to quit consuming large quantities of alcohol because of the pandemic. Possibly one of the few good things that occurred because of the pandemic/lockdowns, and now you may be asking those same people "Hey, there's this show/event going down your friends are going to but it's probably the worst place for a recovering alcoholic. Come on down, you'll be fine."

I'm doing my part for Japan's economy from Vermont! My fave whisky is Suntory Toki and I've always got some on the shelf

For the NATION!!!! Joey don't question these things, just pour up.

Unfortunately Japan places too much respect on their elder leaders without any merit...These people are comicly playing dumb and trying to fix issues by almost certainly creating another. Meanwhile their miserable overworked and hopeless workforce is reaching it's breaking point and the issue is never ever getting addressed for decades...

I think that Japan has an issue with admitting that it was one of the countries that overreacted to covid and now does not want to lose face by opening back. We gotta remember that Japan is very risk-averse on average for both demographic and cultural reasons at the government level, so if the government actually decides to just open back up to tourism and foreigners coming in and out of the country on business, lowering restrictions and regulations on domestic businesses to cut costs etc. you're going to upset alot of these older/middle aged people who have been gaslit over the last few years into thinking their lives are constantly in danger if they see a foreigner who may or may not have covid.

Yeah, I agree with you Joey. Wow, it’s a really stupid idea, they should let the foreigners in and let the foreigners pick up some of the slack of drinking…they totally would. This whole you can only enter our country with a tour group idea, and then this…holy crap WTF Japan!

The more I learn about the internal workings of Japan, the more I realize that Imperial Japan's influence still runs strong in some areas. On the surface they're far more progressive and developed their own new identity, but then you read about the Burakumin, having some of the longest working hours in the world, constant refusal of gay marriage, the xenophobic outlook on visitors, and you start to realize that tradition is still held in high regard, even at the government level. Obviously the culture is different there and I wouldn't know if the average Japanese citizen feels the same, but to me it feels like America isn't the only nation whose views on progress and tradition are always at odds with each other.

These daily uploads are sooo good, appreciate the extra effort as always great joey channel video 🇮🇪

"To Alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems” - Homer Simpson

Sounds like the government needs a lesson on correlation vs causation lol

wo, brilliant, more of this

The gov: oh the tax is to increase health of the country 👀 Also the gov: guys... why are you drinking less??...

As someone that's lived in Japan for 6 years now and during the entire pandemic, i'm not shocked by this at all....First it was the "Go to travel" campaign. Like legit promoting traveling during the pandemic and now this lol... As for social distancing, that seems to be something I rarely see actually happening. They will go to bars or go to events and concerts still/ They just CANNOT not go get drunk and look at the cherry blossoms in big groups etc. Also how many times have they tried to blame it on foreigners or Americans? They had that one PSA about that lady talking into a tissue and they are like LOOK bc english words use more air it spread more covid! like bruh.. you can say the same word foreign or japanese and can control how much air you use.

I am doing my part! For better or worse. Probably worse.

Thank you for helping us fixing the economy with the Asahi! :D

honestly, with what i know about japanese culture and the social aspect, i think most people will follow whatever it is the mass audience decides

I got you Japan. Here's the ad. Galaxy-brain AI hologram: "I have the combined knowledge of the entire human race and know everything that there is or can be!" A technician spills a big-brand name sake bottle on a microchip control board, and *BOOM*! The AI system has turned into a TI-82 with "58008" on the screen.

In the UK one of the flavours of economic panic during and shortly after COVID/lockdowns was due to the service industry - pubs, bars, nightclubs basically not having any of their usual income. If fact, it seemed these establishments were almost being prioritised with all sorts of seemingly mental gymnastics (at least looking as an outsider as someone that doesn't drink). For better or worse, drinking culture is big business and is intrinsic in UK culture, and the service industry is the biggest industry in UK. After dinner drinks/socials/drinks with the mates is pretty standard. Its shockingly easy to end up being left out or forgotten during social, business, or other gatherings if you don't drink. Its the standard option for any "social" for work or university. Lol we even have "pub crawls" in UK, where the aim is to go pub to pub (usually drinking) as a night out. It's especially huge in University cities. Also part of the service industry; hotels got a nasty hit too so establishments adjacent to usual pubs, bars, and restaurants also suffered (fewer guests, fewer people using their bars, etc.) I can kind of see the Japanese govt angle here, given that the service industry and drinking culture is probably massive business in Japan, too. Not entirely sure if it's the sole saviour to their economic troubles, and in fact this industry (like many others) would probably be doing far better when the financial environment surrounding them is doing well and everyone has more disposable income.

Love these vids