|
Japan Wants People To Drink More Alcohol
[ZH] In some sort of Bizarro World scenario, declining alcohol consumption is causing alarm in the halls of Japanese government, as the trend is putting a big dent in the country's tax haul.Average adult alcohol intake dropped from 100 liters a year in 1995 to 75 liters in 2020. Meanwhile, alcohol taxes declined from providing 3% of Japan's tax revenue in 2011 to 2% in 2020. Reflecting a worldwide phenomenon, Japan's younger generations aren't drinking as much as their parents and grandparents did. The general downtrend gained steam when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted lifestyles. Restaurants and bars closed or limited their operations, and people socialized less and shifted to working from home. "Many people may have come to question whether they need to continue the habit of drinking with colleagues to deepen communication," a tax official told the Japan Times. The drop in revenue from 2018 to 2020 was the largest in 31 years. Taxes took a big hit in 1989 with a major change in Japan's Liquor Tax Law. Fear not -- having admitted it has an alcohol problem, Japan's tax agency will no longer sit idle while sobriety insidiously spreads throughout the population. A government campaign is afoot to encourage people to hit the bottle. Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-08-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=641605 |