How Japanese Brewer Aims to Attract Pesky Sober Generation

AIN’T NO MONEY IN SOBRIETY –

June 5, 2024 – There is now a whole new generation that chooses not to drink as much. Multiple studies in the UK, the US and Australia show that people from Gen Z are more sober than their parents and grandparents. In Japan, faced with declining alcohol tax revenues, the authorities even arranged a national competition, named Sake Viva!, in an effort to reverse the trend in 2022. The sober generation does not only affect Japan’s tax revenues, it also offers a whole new challenge for businesses that make and sell alcohol.

“We have realised that younger people are increasingly choosing not to drink as much alcohol,” said Atsushi Katsuki, the chief executive officer of Asahi Group Holdings.

However, Japan’s biggest brewer sees this as both a risk and an opportunity.

“Our firm is quite unique because while the majority of our sales comes from beer and alcoholic beverages, we also have the capability to produce non-alcoholic beverages or soft drinks which gives us a competitive advantage,” he said.

Asahi is also pushing its non-alcoholic and what it refers to as low alcohol offerings – such as alcohol-free beer or drinks with less than 3.5% alcohol – outside of its home market.

“By 2030, we want to double the share of beverages with zero or low alcohol to 20% of our overall beverage sales,” he said.

They are already popular in its home market. Mr Katsuki said that alcohol-free beers account for 10% of Asahi’s beverages sales in Japan as people avoid drink driving.

But the Japanese market is shrinking because of an ageing population and falling birth rates.