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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

As a former frequent traveler to Japan, I think that drinking (especially among salarymen) is out of hand.

I understand bars, taxes, and the alcohol industry, feeling pain, but I don't feel it's very good for people to drink like they do.

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It’s totally out of hand and it’s in your face, everywhere you go.

Well given their life expectancy, they must be doing something right.

They have a nationalized (Sometimes derided as "Socialist.") healthcare system; often assisted by clinics run by corporations. My company had a full urgent care medical clinic at the main factory.

They also tend to retire at sixty (so they are dealing with an aging population. Part of the reason that young people not drinking so much, is a problem, is because there are a lot fewer of them).

So has the UK which has a life expectancy 4yr lower than Japan, close to the US.

Have you ever seen an English breakfast?

Me mum was English, and I loved me fried bread...

A prototypical Japanese breakfast is rice with pickles and smoked fish; maybe some Natto (never warmed to that).

As an English person, I can assure you that not many people have a full English breakfast regularly. Cereal, porridge, toast, yogurt, or "nothing at all" are far more popular.

Sounds absolutely delicious.

Diet. Food, not legislative body.

Japanese people drink far less than westerners though. Those work parties are just one-off and not regular things.

Not for the crowd I hung with.

I would sometimes spend two weeks, over there, and every weeknight was like that.

Thank Cthulhu for public transport.

Can public transport be a cause though? I’ve definitely didn’t hold back my drinking as much when traveling somewhere I didn’t have to rely on driving.

What is the scene exactly? Crushing beers at a bar? Dancing at a club?

Probably crushing beers at an Izakaya, which is practically a bar but not in the same style as western bars.

In my case, the meals were long and mixed with alcohol. It was like a "tasting menu" type of restaurant, with the booze proof increasing, as the evening wore on.

Lunches are a different matter entirely. They would wolf down their meal in ten minutes. Not a drop of alcohol, until the day was done. Lots of energy drinks; even before the US had them.

Aaahnold made some money, doing Japanese energy drink ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLe826lyao

That is good Youtube.

I also drink a lot of alcohol with my meals, but I find that often Japanese people who eat with me refrain from ordering alcohol because the next day is a work day - so Fridays will be a day that everyone orders alcohol for example. I have also been in the accompany of plenty of Japanese who get "Asian flush" and a worried about any effect on their health.

In comparison Koreans will nearly always drink alcohol on a daily basis and to a stronger concentration than what Japanese drink - even the Koreans in Japan.

I think this is more age related. I am actually in Japan currently and I can attest that no-one I know will drink daily like in Europe, possibly weekly but the weekly drinks tend to be far stronger and bigger. A European will have a couple of glasses of wine a day and go clubbing every week, Japanese on the other hand tend to only drink occasionally, attend one of the work parties at work with the older guys who don't want to go home - the idea of the older men who don't want to return to annoying homes is common even in Europe

Both Japanese men and women drink more alcohol than their American counterparts. Average consumption of pure alcohol in liters per year among all adults aged 15+ in 2019:

  Japan Men 15.58, Women 4.93
  United States Men 15.44, Women 4.69

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcohol-c...

I assume this is also not adjusted for the fact that American people on average weigh 50lbs+ (23kg+) more.

Yes, it’s straight alcohol consumption so people in Japan are in effect drinking more than those numbers suggest.

It's tough to compare averages across populations when the people who don't drink really don't drink. Something that takes into account number of drinks per drinking occasion might paint a different picture.

There are more westerners outside the US than inside the US.

Sure, but “far less” is clearly incorrect.

This article might be alluding to an age difference since I am in my early twenties, but I can attest that I am a weak drinker but I drink more alcohol than virtually every Japanese person I have known - only Westerners and a number of Asians such as Koreans can drink in the same pattern as me. If you are an older person then it is common everywhere for married men to drown their sorrows in bars and pubs etc...

This is not true. If you go to Japan you will see an army of extremely drunk salarymen every night, and statistically Japanese people do consume a ton of alcohol compared to most western countries.

As someone who is living in Japan, I would say that Japanese drank less than Europeans for sure. Europeans will drink a couple of glasses of wine every night for example.

I only visited Tokyo. That's like saying I know the US, because I've visited New York. I did go, every year (sometimes multiple times per year), for over twenty years.

Tokyo is Type A++. Seriously high energy.

I also live in Japan currently and I find the drinking culture to be weak. I've met a few people who drink daily but they tend to come from other parts of Asia (Korea etc...) where drinking is very common. This article might be alluding to a age difference considering I am in my early twenties.

> Europeans will drink a couple of glasses of wine every night for example.

I'm from a wine-producing region in Europe and I would not consider this normal in any way. Not even my parents drink that much, and they have a dedicated wine cellar.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k203179-Ho....

While this source seems to have valid numbers for wine consumption (based on the 2016 numbers available on Wikipedia), but the jump from liters per year to glasses per day is not coherent at all.

60 liters per year =

1.15 liters per week =

164ml per day

That is a not 2-3 glasses nor the "couple of glasses" I was calling out - that is what I would describe as "one generous glass" or ~1.3 UK standard wine glasses of 125ml.

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