Popular alcoholic beverages for at home drinking in Japan 2023

The most popular alcoholic beverage among Japanese consumers for drinking at home was beer, according to a survey conducted in Japan in June 2023. Beer and beer-like beverages like happoshu and the third placed daisan beer are a core segment of the Japanese alcoholic beverages market. As liquor taxes in the beer market categorize the beverages according to the malt content, happoshu was introduced as a lower-priced alternative to generic beer. Daisan beer followed as the cheapest non-malt variant of the brewed beverage, before reforms were introduced to close the loophole by gradually streamlining tax rates.

Domestic alcoholic beverage market

The alcoholic beverage market in Japan encompasses a large variety of brewed, distilled, and fermented products. Among the broad product range, beer and liqueurs made up the lion’s share of domestic production volume of liquor. While Japan is well known for its traditional production of rice wine (sake), the country is also known for its large export market of whisky and other hard alcoholic beverages.

Heated competition among breweries

The Japanese liquor market offers a competitive landscape, with domestic manufacturers emerging as leaders. Major manufacturers included the four breweries Asahi, Suntory, Sapporo, and Kirin, who contributed significantly to domestic beer production.
However, smaller microbreweries are entering the market among a growing interest in craft beer. The various flavor profiles help microbrewers to stand out among the leading breweries. However, high prices are preventing the segment from flourishing as more affordable standard product lines of the main brewers are preferred for home drinking.