Japan Is Drinking Less, So Brewers Are Upping Alcohol Content
- Brewers Kirin, Sapporo market get-drunk-quickly beverages
- New segments become crucial as domestic beer sales fall off
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Japanese brewers are discovering a new way to tap the lucrative market of working adults: Get them tipsy more quickly and efficiently.
This domestic segment is becoming more important to beer makers Kirin Holdings Co. and Sapporo Holdings Co. as Japan’s famously aging population -- the oldest in the world -- drinks less. They have released canned drinks with up to 9 percent alcohol by volume, which is the highest it can be without being pushed into another tax bracket.