Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #553

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Rupert Neate
The Japanese government has launched a nationwide com- petition calling for ideas to encour- age people to drink more alco- hol after a change in attitudes among the young resulted in a slide in tax revenues.
The
Sake Viva! cam- paign, which is being run by the National Tax Agency (NTA), asks 20- to 39- year-olds to come up with proposals to help revitalise the popularity of alcoholic drinks, which have fallen out of favour because of lifestyle changes during the coron-
avirus pandemic and among young people.
The competition, which runs until 9 September, calls for “new products and designs” as well as ways to promote home drinking. Entrants are also encour- aged to explore sales methods using the meta-
verse, according to local website JiJi.com.
The NTA said alcohol consump- tion in Japan had fallen from an average of 100 litres a person a year in 1995 to 75 litres in 2020. The decrease in alco- hol sales has hit Japan’s budget, which is already running a deficit of more than ¥48tn (£290bn)
Taxes on alcohol accounted for 1.7% of Japan’s tax revenue in 2020, down from 3% in 2011 and 5% in 1980. Total revenue from tax on alcohol in the 2020 financial year fell by more than ¥110bn to ¥1.1tn, compared with the previous year, the NTA said earlier this month. It was the biggest fall in
alcohol tax income in 31 years, according to the Japan Times.
“As working from home made strides to a cer- tain extent during the Covid 19 cri- sis, many people may have come to question whether they need to continue the habit of drink- ing with col- leagues to deep- en communica- tion,” an official at the agency told the English-lan- guage newspaper at the time. “If the ‘new normal’ takes root, that will be an addi- tional headwind for tax revenue.”
There was a par- ticularly steep decline in beer consumption, with sales volume down 20% to less
than 1.8bn litres.
Kirin brewery, which makes Kirin lager and Ichiban Shibori, said per capita beer con- sumption in Japan totalled about 55 bottles in 2020, a 9.1% decline on the previous year.
Japan’s health ministry said it hoped the cam- paign would also remind people to remember to drink only the “appropriate amount of alco- hol”.
Finalists in the competition will be invited to gala awards ceremony in Tokyo on 10 November, and the tax office said it would support the commerciali- sation of the ideas from the winner.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Japan Launches Nationwide Competition To Boost Alcohol Consumption