The United States also notes that the evolution of the marketplace in Korea and Japan also bears great similarity. Korea is beginning to resemble the Japanese market of today, with increasing availability of western spirits in traditional, casual Korean restaurants and bars. According to the United States, Korea's greater constraint of choice of distilled spirits availability in various bar and restaurant venues bears a closer resemblance to Japan before its last round of market liberalization in 1989. The United states notes that the marketplace does reveal some differences between Korea and Japan. According to the United States, Korean consumption patterns are much more fixed in traditional, family-type restaurants than in Japan, where a wider range of distilled spirits is consumed.
Korean manufacturers do the same when they market two versions of soju in Japan.
In fact the differences in the two kinds of soju exports probably reflect Japanese laws and cost considerations more than anything else. Most importantly though, these are clearly additives, as opposed to ingredients. At the same time, there is no requirement in Korean law to use any sweetener at all in soju, thus making it possible for soju to contain no additives at all. Korea also classifies soju and shochu identically for both tax and tariff purposes. Furthermore, according to the United States, Korea's reliance on differences in the additives between shochu and soju as establishing that they are fundamentally different is contradicted by its description of premium soju.