Alcohol taxes were down to just 1.7% of the country’s total tax revenue in 2020, down from 5% forty years ago.
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A boost for the drink. The Japanese government will launch an advertising campaign this summer to encourage young people to drink more alcohol, the British newspaper reported on Wednesday (August 17th). The Guardian (in English). Named “Sake Viva!” (in reference to the famous Japanese spirit), the advertising campaign, which will run until September 9, is organized by the NTA (National Tax Agency), the Japanese national tax agency.
It will take the form of a competition reserved for Japanese aged 20 to 39, which intends to gather the opinion of young people to revive alcohol consumption in the country through new “sales strategies”specifies the Japanese online media JiJi.com (in Japanese), quoted by The Guardian. The finalists will then be called for an awards ceremony on September 10, and will be funded to commercialize their ideas.
According to the Japanese media, the number of people who do not drink alcohol has increased in recent years due to the decline in opportunities to drink outside, linked to the Covid-19 crisis. The NTA noted that alcohol consumption in the country had fallen from an average of 100 liters per person per year in 1995 to 75 liters in 2020. Beer consumption is the one that has fallen the most, also reports the British newspaper.
This drop in consumption led to a drop in sales, thus affecting Japan’s budget, which was already at half mast. Taxes on alcohol, which accounted for 5% of the country’s total tax revenue in 1980, only accounted for 1.7% in 2020. The country’s trade deficit reached 2,385 billion yen in May ( 17 billion euros), its worst level for eight years, according to The echoes.