The Revenue Agency of the Rising Sun is sounding the alarm: as alcohol consumption falls, so do the taxes going into government coffers. The reasons? Covid and the demographics of the country
“Young Japanese, drink more alcohol.” It is not the advertising slogan of a distillery of the rising sun, but the Tokyo government’s call to its young citizens. Their fault”? Drinking too little alcohol and thus depriving the state of part of its income.
It was the tax office – as the BBC reported – to sound the alarm.
Alcohol consumption in Japan has fallen by an average of 1 percent over the past 25 years: in 1995, every citizen drank about 100 liters of alcohol a year, in 2020 it was only 75. As a result, the taxes on the sale of sake, beer and co 5 percent of total sales in 1980 to 1.7 percent in 2020.
Here’s the gimmick: a national competition organized by the same agency that rewards any citizen between the ages of 20 and 39 who finds a way to get their peers to uncork more bottles. With “Sake Viva!” – that’s the name of the campaign, which ends at the end of September – the government is asking us to think about appropriate actions, including with artificial intelligence. For example, one of the proposals received is to equip the bars with holograms of famous actresses who “flank” the waiters in flesh and blood. The most valid finds will be officially presented in November.
The lower propensity of young people in the country to raise their elbow has several explanations: on the one hand, it is one of the effects of the pandemic, which has reduced opportunities to drink alcohol; on the other hand, it is the consequence of the demographic development of the rising sun.
Japan is one of the countries with the most elderly people in the world, and according to the World Bank, 29 percent of the population is over 65 – an age when alcohol consumption is less common – and faces the problem of a very low birth rate and virtually no immigration.
The most pessimistic estimates suggest that Japan’s population could shrink by 30 percent by mid-century, reaching 90 million (up from 130 today).
August 18, 2022 (change August 18, 2022 | 18:31)
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