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Japan Launches Nationwide Competition to Boost Alcohol Consumption

MORE alcohol? Yes, you read that right, the Japanese government is launching a nationwide competition among the young people in Japan for ideas on how to encourage people to drink more alcohol.  This comes as the country experienced a large slide in tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sake Viva!

The National Tax Agency (NTA) is running a campaign called “The Sake Viva! Campaign.” This campaign asks adults from the ages of 20 to 39 years old to try and come up with creative ways to encourage the public to purchase and consume more alcohol across the country.  A lifestyle change was seen due to the pandemic which has stopped people from drinking as much, thus reducing tax revenues. The competition will run until September 9th and calls for “new products and designs” which are sure to be interesting.

“As working from home made strides to a certain extent during the Covid-19 crisis, many people may have come to question whether they need to continue the habit of drinking with colleagues to deepen communication,” an official at the agency told the English-language newspaper at the time. “If the ‘new normal’ takes root, that will be an additional headwind for tax revenue.”

Big drop in Revenue

The NTA said alcohol consumption in Japan has fallen from 100 liters (about 26.5 gallons) a person per year in 1995, down to 75 liters (around 20 gallons) a person per year in 2020. Alcohol only accounted for 1.7% of all the tax revenue collected by the country which was a drop from 3% in 2011 and 5% in 1980. The NTA said earlier this month that the country has seen the biggest tax revenue drop in 31 years. Two Japanese breweries, Kirin Brewery, and Ichiban Shibori stated that per capita, total beer consumption in Japan was about 55 bottles in 2020, a 9.1% decline from last year.

Wrap Up

On November 10th, the finalists of the competition will be invited to a gala awards ceremony held in Tokyo, and the tax office will support the commercialization of the winner’s idea.  It will be equally interesting to see what new products and concepts are unveiled as well as how much this will drive the country’s tax revenue.

 
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