For both alcohol and cigarettes, Japan is quite the opposite. Let’s find out why this is and learn more about all the little kids running around drunk in the land of the rising sun.

Being Of Legal Age

Now that we’re 20 we can drink and smoke, lol!

Ironically in 1900, Japan was the very first country to create a law that banned underage smoking. It’s kind of like those “ridiculous laws” articles that you see from time to time. For example, in Louisiana “Fake” wrestling matches are prohibited. Or, how in Washington the harassing of Bigfoot, Sasquatch or other undiscovered subspecies is a felony punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment. The underage drinking and smoking laws in Japan are just like that. Laws that nobody upholds, and laws that nobody cares about.

But, let’s just pretend that people care for a moment. The minimum drinking and smoking age is 20 years old, the age when people are considered to be “adults” in Japan. There are laws against consuming, selling, or giving cigarettes or alcohol to minors, but nobody listens. In 1996, the average number of cases brought to prosecutors for underage smoking, for example, was five. Of course, none of the accused were punished in any way. Underage drinking just isn’t considered a big deal, though God forbid you give someone else a ride on your bicycle (that’s a 20,000 yen fine I’ve seen given to several unfortunate people).

Drinking Underage In Japan

The kind of thing I would have liked had I been drinking in high school

The Japanese underage drinking law came into affect in 1922. It has been ignored ever since. Most nations decreased their alcohol consumption since WWII. Japan has managed to increase it. Alcohol on a whole is pretty big in Japan. With children it’s increasing as well.

Here is a summary of results on a survey translated by the authors of “Young People’s Drinking Behavior in Japan” (see sources below).

1. Despite the law prohibiting underage drinking, around 50% of junior high school and 70% of senior high school students reported some experience with alcohol.
2. As in other countries, instances of alcohol consumption, regular drinking, and alcohol-related problems show a constant and dramatic increase with age.
3. Differences are not too wide for drinking patterns of boys and girls. However, boys still exhibit more drinking problems such as fighting, vomiting, hangover, and blackouts.
4. The major source of beverage alcohol for junior and senior high school students was their own homes, followed by convenience stores. Percentage of students obtaining alcohol from vending machines decreased in both junior and senior high school students, as fewer vending machines selling alcohol became available.
5. The choice of alcohol beverage appeared to be gender-linked. Male students preferred beer, while female respondents preferred sweet or fruit-flavored cocktails.
6. Drinking behavior did not change dramatically between 1996 and 2000. It was noted however, that, while overall alcohol consumption appeared to decrease, drinking problems in female students increased during this period.

This wasn’t just one year of surveys, though. They ran follow-ups over the course of five years. By the fifth year, 70% of students were still filling out the survey. Here’s the summaries they came up with regarding the five-year span.

1. Drinking behavior changes dramatically during junior and senior high school years.
2. Over the 5-year period, the percentage of young people consuming alcohol doubled. Drinking in the family tended to be replaced by drinking with friends.
3. The prevalence of alcohol-related problems increased sharply since students were first surveyed in 1997. For example, the percentage of problem drinkers, identified according to the Japanese version of the Quantity-Frequency Scale (Suzuki et al., 1994), increased more than 100 times over the 5-year period, as students progressed from junior to senior high school.
4. Risk factors found to be associated with drinking problems were: earlier age of the first drink, susceptibility to peer pressure, and lack of communication with parents.

There are a few big-picture points we can glean from this. First, there are junior high school students drinking, which boggles my mind. Second, a lot of girls are drinking. Third, a lot of high school students are drinking, which is less surprising, but there’s still quite a bit of this going on.

So Why Are The Kids Drinking?

So we have to ask ourselves, why are all these underage kids drinking? I think there are several reasons, though please note that a lot of this is just my opinion and experience talking.

1. People Will Sell You Alcohol: Shopkeepers will sell to underage kids most of the time. The closest thing to carding I’ve ever seen was a screen that shows up in convenience stores that asks “are you 20 or older?” then has a “yes” button but no “no” button.
2. Vending Machines Vend Alcohol: Although alcohol vending machines are decreasing in numbers, there are still quite a few out there. You can easily buy alcohol from vending machines, and of course they don’t card you. If getting alcohol is this easy, then why wouldn’t kids buy from them? As one great beer mogul once said, “if you build it, they will come.”
3. The Taste Of Japanese Alcohol: Japanese alcohol is easy to drink. Even for kids. There is chu-hai, which mostly tastes like carbonated lemon soda, and if I was a kid I would have loved it (it was developed to be more “womanly” after all). Then there’s the regular beer as well. Asahi Super Dry, Japan’s most popular beer, which is also a lot like drinking a lightly beer flavored soda. After that there’s sake, which unlike sake outside of Japan, actually tastes really good (and is super smooth). Pretty much every Japanese alcoholic beverage is really easy to drink, and this makes it easier for the kids too. I didn’t like the taste of alcohol until my early to mid twenties. If I had been given basically any Japanese alcohol, I may have had a different opinion on the matter.

I can also confirm a lot of the summaries put forth above as well. Despite going to one of the best high schools in the Nagoya area, at least one third of my friends would drink on a somewhat regular basis. I didn’t see it much (unless we were at karaoke), but they were open about their habits. I had one friend who would have a beer every night “to help him to fall asleep.” I suspect he was just getting ready for salaryman life.

Smoking Underage In Japan

Unlike alcohol, I’ve seen firsthand the decrease in consumption across the board. Smoking in Japan is becoming slightly more taboo every year that goes by, and now they’re being corralled into smoking pens. Restaurants even have non-smoking sections or no-smoking rules, which feels unheard of considering how things were ten years ago.

Still, underage smoking is still prevalent, as Japan still is a very smoking culture. In 1999, 19% of 15-20 year old men and 4.3% of 15-20 year old women identified themselves as smokers. 42% of male smokers and 35% of female smokers reported going habitual before 20, the legal age limit. While a lot of time has passed between then and now, I imagine the numbers are fairly similar but slightly better (just guessing based on my own experience).

To back up these numbers, I have a similar experience (though a very small data-set) from high school times in Japan. Amongst my core group of six friends at the time, two of them smoked, though never at school. It wouldn’t be a lot (maybe one or two packs a week), but definitely enough to call them smokers. Of course, both of them are heavy smokers today, well into their twenties.

Just like alcohol, smoking is really easy in Japan. Tobacco Vending machines are much more prevalent compared to alcohol vending machines. If you don’t have a convenient vending machine, shopkeepers and convenience stores will sell pretty much anyone cigarettes. If you want them you can have them, and with the number of people who smoke still, there just isn’t that pressure not to smoke, so kids get started early.

But Is It Right?

That, I’m not so sure about. It’s easy to do in Japan, but I can’t really say what’s right or wrong (that’s up to you in the comments). Kids aren’t driving anywhere, because while it’s easy to get a beer when you’re 15 it’s impossible to get a driver’s license. So, nobody’s going to hurt anyone that way. Also, Japan is a lot safer than most places too. You can get drunk and fall asleep in front of a train station like this guy, and you don’t have to worry about your bag getting stolen.

Then, there is the whole “getting prepared for business life thing.” While I feel like it’s a dumb excuse (those salarymen drink way too much), there is some truth in this statement. Friends would tell me this in regards to their drinking, because if you’re not prepared both mentally and physically for the brutal nomikais that await you, you’re going to have a hard time.

But drinking can also help people to relax. With the intensity that is the Japanese school system, it’s (almost) hard to blame anyone who wants a way to calm down and relax for once. Alcohol is a way that people do that, and while it’s a bad excuse, I almost want to compare teenage drinking in Japan to teenage (pot) smoking in America. Marijuana in Japan is very hard to get (and the punishment is steep). Both aren’t right, technically, though many would argue otherwise, I think. Alcohol, compared to marijuana, is very easy to get, and there’s no punishment for breaking the alcohol law, just like marijuana and kids in America. When a kids wants to let go and escape testing hell for a few hours, this is how they’re going to do it (this and karaoke).

I’m not going to come out and say what’s right and wrong, because I really don’t know, but these are my observations. While I never partook in these activities myself in Japanese high school, I had plenty of opportunities. I guess my upbringing in America taught me that drugs are bad and I should always refuse, or something like that. If I was given a 5yen coin for the number of times I was offered alcohol at home / a matsuri / a restaurant… well, I could buy a lot of beer, though not as much as I would have got if I had accepted every alcohol-related offer. It’s easy to get alcohol and cigarettes in Japan and sometimes hareder to say no. Japan is a very group oriented culture, and alcohol (more than cigarettes) is one way to become closer with said groups. Alcohol opens you up and allows you to express your feelings, something that doesn’t come up very often in Japanese society (at least when alcohol isn’t involved). With the ease of getting alcohol and tobacco in Japan, as well as the lack of harder drugs, it’s no wonder there are so many cases of underage drinking and smoking.

Now it’s your turn. Is this right? Is it wrong? Let me know what you think.

Download a desktop-sized version of the header image!

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Update: Turns out, a lot of tobacco machines require an ID to show you’re of age. Times are-a-changing it seems. That being said, buying cigarettes from a person and not a vending machine seems quite easy, much like alcohol. So, while it’s more difficult than I thought to get cigarettes when you’re below 20 years old, it’s still fairly easy to get cigarettes. Apologies for the incorrect information, though the message is still pretty much the same, I think. Also, thank you for those of you who let me know in the comments, I need to get into smoking so I know these things!

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Sources

Japan: Streets Unsafe as Machines Prey on Children, by Mark A. Levin
Tobacco Control , Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 132-133

Young People’s Drinking Behavior in Japan, by Susumu Higuchi, Kenji Suzuki, Sachio Matsushita, and Yoneatsu Osaki.

What to Order First at a Japanese Bar

After a long day at school/the office/Steve’s basement everyone in Japan is looking forward to that first drink at their local bar. But what should they order?

With Japan’s structured drinking culture, everyone seems to enjoy sharing the same type of drink for the first round. It just feels better for that first kampai (cheers) when everyone is sharing the same beverage. Japan is a very team oriented country, and their drinking habits are no exception. So get in that team attitude and join in with the group for that first round.

It’s most common for beer or sake to be ordered on the first round and then people start to branch out a bit after that to their liking since beer and sake are a lot easier to order as a group and share than mai tais and cosmos.

But How Do I Pour These Things?

Depending on the place you go, whether it be a restaurant, bar, or izakaya (combination bar and restaurant) you’ll either have your drinks poured for you by the waiter/waitress, or you and your group will be in charge of pouring your own from a communal source. In the case of the latter, there is a certain process to follow.

While drinking in Japan, it is considered proper etiquette to fill everyone else’s glasses and not your own. You’re supposed to wait for someone else to fill yours, usually after you do the same for them. When you offer to fill someone’s glass, they may refuse as a show of traditional Japanese humbleness but this is usually just a formality. Unless someone is continually and vehemently refusing your offer, they’re just being polite and you should fill their glass anyway.

And like I said, once you fill someone else’s glass, they’ll usually return the favor in kind and fill yours for you. So be careful if you’re not looking to drink anymore – if you fill someone else’s glass, you’re likely to get yours refilled or topped off right away in return. As such, if you feel like you’ve reached your limit, the best thing to do is to have your glass filled full and not drink any more of it.

The Japanese are also big fans of drinking games and you’ll be sure to learn some you’ve never heard of before while you’re there. They also seem to like testing the alcohol tolerance of foreigners, so don’t be surprised if they try to pressure you into drinking more than you’re normally comfortable with (at least until they discover what your actual tolerance really is).

One of my favorite drinking games from Japan is called Takenoko Takenoko Nyoki Ki. Takenoko means bamboo, nyoki is the sound that bamboo shoots make as they sprout, and ki means tree. It’s an elimination game so alcohol doesn’t need to be involved, but I think it works best as a drinking game.

Each person has to say a number and then nyoki (ichi-nyoki, ni-nyoki, etc) while putting their hands over their head like a bamboo shoot. You say the numbers in order from one to however many people are playing minus one with each person shouting out a number. If two people say a number at the same time, they’re both out and have to drink. If you’re last, then you’re out and you drink alone.

So it’s just like a group of people counting at random to a specified number and no one wants to count at the same time or be last. Like most games, it’s a lot easier to understand if you actually play a round of it once. But trust me, it’s fun.

For more information about other drinking games that I haven’t played you can check out these posts from The Incredible Talking Monkey, Gaijin Tonic, and Wikipedia.

As for the pecking order when filling other people’s glasses, it is customary for the underlings at a company to fill their superiors’ glasses, underclassmen to pour upperclassmens’ and for females to pour for the males. It is also proper etiquette to promptly reciprocate the pour.

As with most everything that involves drinking, the rules get a bit looser as the night carries on and people get a bit more tipsy. Keeping this in mind, don’t be surprised if people start filling their own glasses or going against some of the customary guidelines detailed above. As long as everyone is having a good time and not being blatantly rude, it’s all gravy in the Navy.

What to do When the Check Comes

As with almost every Japanese establishment, it is up to the patrons to split the bill on their own. Pretty much always a single check will be brought to the group’s table and it is up to them to figure out who owes what. Splitting the check in Japan is referred to as betsu-betsu which means separately or individually.

It’s pretty common for betsu-betsu to be the go to method when paying for checks in Japan. Even when on dates betsu-betsu is not unusual, but having the guy get the entire bill is always appreciated by the lady in question, I’m sure.

In some cases, if a high ranking company official is part of the drinking group – they may insist on paying the whole check or at least a significant portion of it. It is also not unusual for one person (most often among salarymen) to foot the entire bill and then collect shares from people the following day for convenience’s sake.

Late Night and Beyond

It’s also fairly common for people in Japan to be out way late when they get to drinking. Some salarymen will stay out incredibly late with their coworkers and bosses. Then the only sleep they get is on the train and they spend hardly any time at home before they leave to come back to work in the morning only to repeat the entire process all over again. For more information, check out The Science Behind Drunken Salarymen and with your help they can be saved.

And then there’s the nightlife in Japan. From personal experience, it seems very popular for the young crowd to wait until midnight or so to go out to bars and clubs and then stay out all night partying until the trains start running again in the morning.

The bottom line here is to be prepared to stay out later than you’re used to when you go out drinking in Japan. Of course it depends on the crowd you’re with and what type of people they are, but it’s definitely not unusual to be out pretty late when getting your drink on in Japan.

Feeling buzzed yet? Check out Nick’s 10 Tips for Tipsy Japanese for more Japanese drinking information and for more general tips on drinking (and eating) you can check out this post from SeeJapan.co.uk.

Help A Salaryman. Watch This Video.

It’s come to my attention that Japanese wives have been getting more and more stingy with their husband’s spending money. While in 1990 Japanese salarymen received on average 76,000 yen per month to spend on lunch, beer and other fun things, salarymen of today only get on average 36,500 yen per month (that’s around $450 thanks to the good Japanese→Dollar exchange rate, so it probably feels more like $350). This decrease is due to the economy (and more recently) the earthquake. Japanese are just getting more careful with their money all around. But that’s exactly why I decided to create the “Save The Salaryman Foundation” over 20 years ago. I want to help these poor, sober Japanese salarymen drink again.

“Keeping Japanese Salarymen Drinking since 1991″

In a “traditional” Japanese family, the husband goes out and works all the time while the wife stays home and takes care of the child/children, cleans, and deals with all the money stuff. Along with this “money stuff” comes the responsibility to give money (back) to the husband for spending money. They spend their money on things like lunch, snacks, beer, and other fun things. Basically, it’s their “spending money.” Their “allowance” if you will.

The economy in Japan, though, hasn’t been all that great lately. The earthquake, of course, didn’t help, and people all over Japan have been holding onto their money more and businesses have been seeing less business. When a business sees less business they can’t pay as many of their workers are much, and so they spend less money because of that. It’s a terrifying circle if you ask me, but it’s the salarymen, of course, who are really suffering (they need their beer money!). All those smart housewives have been giving out less as a result.

Some ways Salaryman money has changed:

• In 1990 Salarymen got 76,000 yen vs. the 36,500 yen they get now.
• Japanese salarymen bring lunch to work a lot more often now (to save money).
• On average, they spend 490 yen for lunch.
• Salarymen eat out 2.9 times per month and spend 3540 yen each outing (compared to 6000 yen only 2 years ago, in 2009).
• The last time it was this low as 1982, which is nearly 30 years ago.

Hope you enjoyed this just-for-fun post. All joking aside, though, go buy a salaryman a beer. He probably needs another more than you think.

1. Talk to Japanese People

Now is your chance!  Do it now!  Speak to strangers in Japanese without getting one word answers in return!  As some of us have experienced, it can be very hard to have a real conversation with Japanese strangers in public because of their inhibitions about talking to foreigners, and especially the chance that they might have to use English.  Thanks to the power of alcohol and the loss of power of societal expectations, if you talk to a Japanese person in a drinking establishment you will likely get a longer answer.  Occasionally, they will even come talk to you! Granted, not all of these encounters will be fun:

「外人（がいじん）だ！ここから出（で）て行（い）けこのやろ！」”It’s a foreigner!  Get out of here jerk!”

or:

「すげーこの外人（がいじん）のお尻（しり）がマジででけー！」”Wow, this foreigner’s butt is huuuge!”

No one really wants to hear these kind of comments, but hey, practice is practice right?  Good time to work on a clever comeback.  For the most part, however, I hope your conversations are better than that.  For example, since people at the bar have lowered inhibitions you might even get to move your conversational topics beyond the differences in seasonal weather between where ever you are from and Japan.

2. Order things

Okay okay, for this one to work you need to get beyond ビール一本（いっぽん）ください “One beer please.”  The food and beverage options at a lot of places are pretty extensive and vary greatly from place to place, so pick something on the menu you don’t recognize and ask someone what it is!  If you are lucky, it will be something exclusively Japanese and it will take quite a bit of talking with the waiter (or other willing Japanese person near by) to figure out exactly what it is you are ordering.  This type of “real world” practice is invaluable and will go a long way to building language fluency and understanding of the Japanese culture.  The other option is of course just to point at something and hope you don’t get something either nasty or expensive and just build vocabulary that way.

3.  Learn Drinking Songs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZho0UbKTZ0&NR=1[/youtube]

Like drinking songs in English, a lot of Japanese 飲（の）み会（かい）コール “drinking party chants” are really bad!  If you can keep up with the slang and swear like a sailor, you’ll be further along the path to fluency than most though.

4.  Go to Karaoke

In Japan, all roads do not lead to Rome, they lead to Karaoke.

At some point during your evening (or afternoon, whatever) there is a highly strong chance you will end up at karaoke if you have already been visiting a drinking establishment in Japan.  DO NOT WASTE THIS CHANCE!  Join up with some of your newly found, slightly “friendlier,” Japanese friends and learn a few tunes in Japanese.  Yes, this in fact means that you have to get beyond just the chorus in “Linda, Linda” but with perseverance and maybe a little YouTube before you go out, you can literally blow the socks off of everyone in the room.  Guaranteed, no one expects a foreigner to pull of the songs “Yamato” or “Sen No Kaze” flawlessly in Japanese, and you will have friends for life (or at least the evening) if you do.

5.  Try to ナンパ

Attempting to get lucky with a guy or girl you do not know in Japan is called “nampa.”  To have decent game though, it helps to understand the language, and with luck on your side one will improve with the other!  Learning silly pickup lines probably wont help, but getting to the point where you can have a clever conversation with someone you are interested in might.  Or just be イケメン or 美人（びじん） “hot” and no one will care if your Japanese is awful.  For the purpose of language improvement however, using your Japanese with someone you are interested in adds extra incentive to practice!  Get out there and don’t be shy!

6.  Pay your bill

When the bill comes, there are sometimes complications for which you may need to use your Japanese.  Your group needs to decide who will pay, and depending on the type of establishment you are visiting you may have additional “service charges” (see Japan’s Fantasy Girls for additional clarification).  For the first step, it is often pretty easy to determine who will pay, either the highest ranking person in the group in the case of a company/school outing, or わりかん meaning splitting the bill into equal parts, in the case of a casual outing with your friends.  Paying for exactly what your ordered, called 別々（べつべつ）, happens a lot less often unless it is with a group of foreigners.

In the case of being treated to a night of drinking and eating by your boss (or professor etc.) you of course need to practice being grateful and saying thank you:

ごちそうさまでした。Thank you for treating me.

すみませんありがとうございます。Excuse me, thank you very much.

In the case of splitting the bill with your friends, to figure out what you need to pay you can use:

僕（ぼく）の分（ぶん）いくら払（はら）えばいいですか？How much should I pay for my part?

Or with really close friends you can just ask

いくら？How much?

It depends on who you are with and what situation you are in, but there are varying degrees of formality when paying, so be sure to look into what you should say before going out to avoid being rude!

7.  Make Friends with the Staff

This step is a lot easier to do at some places than others.  Smaller establishments are typically better because they are a little quieter, and the “master” of the shop or other staff have more time to spend with individual customers as compared to bigger bars, chain izakayas, or other places like that.  Initial conversations might be about the master’s drink special of the night, his/her おすすめ “recommendations” but if you are a good customer and hit it off with the master and staff then you will have great conversation partners as well as occasionally get awesome deals for being a regular.  The staff might also be a bridge between you and other Japanese customers if you have a good enough relationship.  Of course it all depends on the particular establishment you go to, but listening to the “master’s” stories can be priceless as well as good for your language!  If you are lucky you’ll get a drink named after you!

8.  Find a place to sleep

Missing the last train may mean you need to act like a Japanese salary man and find a cheap or free place to crash.

Since staying out late in Japan is a very common practice, and sleeping at a co-workers place is not, so there are a number of business that cater to those who miss the last train, the most famous being capsule hotels as pictured above.  What you see is what you get, but you can at least get a few hours of sleep out of the cold and maybe a shower.  A lot of capsule hotels cater only to men, so women might need to find other options if out past the last train.

To improve your Japanese in the process of finding late night lodging, you can use and build on the following phrases:

When you want to stay with a friend:

今日（きょう）泊（と）めてくれる？ “Will you let me stay at your place tonight?”

ありがとう！ここからどのぐらい？ “Thanks!  About how far away is it (your place) from here?”

At a hotel:

空き部屋（あきべや）はありますか？  “Do you have any rooms available?”

一泊（いっぱく）はいくらですか？ “How much is it to stay for the night?”

ここは女（おんな）の人（ひと）が泊まれますか？ “Is it possible for women to stay here?”

チェックアウトは何時（なんじ）ですか？ “What time is checkout?”

Depending on your situation, the procedures might be different, so you can get a lot of practice with Japanese just by checking in and out of various hotels.

9.  Learn etiquette of eating and drinking

Japanese culture is filled with complexity and subtlety.  Please do not take this video seriously, it is supposed to be a joke!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o[/youtube]

Actually learning how to eat and drink properly will really impress people and make it easier to strike a conversation.  Often, Japanese people are impressed just with a 外人（がいじん）”foreigner” being able to use chopsticks, but if you are actually able to pour sake the right way to the right people, pass food the right way, and show modesty people will be amazed and want to talk to you about how you learned your manners.  After they tell you how good you are, be sure to ask for more tips so you keep on learning the etiquette, practicing the language, and showing people your genuine interest in their culture!

10.  Be a connoisseur

Japan has arguably some of the best food and drink in the world, so ask and learn about what you are eating and drinking!

While in Japan, visitors can develop a taste for new and different types of food and drink whether it is sake, sushi, shochu, tako yaki, and the list goes on and on.  If you find your “calling” be it $400 platters of sashimi or $5 pints of Asahi Super Dry with gyoza, learn about what you’re eating and talk about it to other people.  Japanese people can have really strong opinions about what they eat, like preferences for Hiroshima style or Osaka style okonomiyaki, so you might find yourself in some heated arguments, but learning about the ingredients, the best places to eat or drink whatever it is you like, and the varieties in styles can provide ammunition for your argument and be a good learning tool for Japanese language and culture.

Disclaimer

While pubs, bars, izakaya, sushi restaurants, snack bars, etc are great places to make friends and learn Japanese it goes without saying to “don’t do anything stupid.”  Going there doesn’t mean you have to make all foreigners look bad by doing things like getting embarrassingly drunk, shamelessly hitting on Japanese people, or just being inappropriate in general.  Do your best to learn the language from the people who use it every day while not acting like a jerk.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.