United Nations of Beer

Japanese beer culture

by Douglas Gloag
(Beer Delegate, Japan)

Japanese beer culture and language

It all starts with the commercials. A handsome-ish bloke, with a smiling pretty (fully-clothed) babette nearby, gulps a glass of beer the size of which you could hide in the palm of your hand and then sighs audibly and contentedly.

The gulp is digitally mastered and I'm sure they add psychological ESP messages (a la Minority Report), 'cause I'm always reaching for the cooler box to quench my sudden thirst!

Beer, or biiru, is still very popular in Japan. Although it is referred to as beer, it is actually extremely cold lager. There is a phrase which you will often hear in Japanese-style pubs when people first get to their places and sit down: Toriaizu, biiru!

This is approximately the Japanese beer culture equivalent of saying, "I'll start with a beer, please!"

Beer comes in bottles or draft, although be warned. In the draft department, Japan could challenge the porn industry – it really loves lots of head! Sending beers back is definitely frowned upon (although never shown facially) and I have even been told that two-thirds beer to one-third head is the perfect way to drink beer... yeah, right!

(This explains why I was never invited back to Japan, after I sent back a beer with too much foam in 1999... What a faux pas! Ed.)

Some pubs have a nomi-hodai which is an all-you-can drink package for a set time. The set time is actually longer than you would think! Not 15 minutes, nor 30 minutes but TWO HOURS of as much Japanese beer as your belly can handle.

Most pubs will only stock one type of beer, but it is of no matter as the three main 'brews' are all very nom-able. (sorry, that's an 'in' joke there. Nomu means "to drink". "Nom-able" therefore means drinkable!)

The three main beers are Asahi Super Dry, Kirin and Sapporo (with a definite market for Suntory knocking on the back door).

The reason why there are so few brews in Japan (and I'm watering down the whole debate here to a few lines) is that you need a license to brew beer; to get the license, you need to promise to make billions of litres of beer a week. The only people who can manage this are the big companies.

I'll write more on Japanese beer culture soon, including where to find these pubs and what to order!

Japanese beer culture: pronunciation guide

We begin by listing the English word; the Japanese equivalent is bolded; (then a breakdown of how to pronounce it is added in brackets).

Beer = Biiru
(The English word "beer" with the "ee" extended and a soft "ru", as in the French white sauce "roux", should get you there.)

I'll start with a beer, please! = Toriaizu, biiru!
(Saying "Tony's eyes" and substituting the "n" for an "r", while adding a soft "u" at the end, will have you speaking beer Japanese like a pro!)

Happy hour = nomi-hodai
("nomi" as in "nominate" and "hodai" is not "hoe-die" but Santa’s "hohoho-die".)

Drink = Nomu
(Pronounced like the New Zealand Rugby winger Lomu, changing the "L" to an "N". For people who don't follow rugby, the English equivalent would be "No-moo".)