page_title: Beer in Japan
section_title: Market size
hierarchical_section_title: Beer in Japan / Market size
caption_attribution_description: Canned Japanese beer in a liquor shop
context_page_description: Beer in Japan comes mostly from the country's four major beer producers: Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, and Suntory, producing mainly pale-colored light lagers with an alcohol strength of around 5.0% ABV. Pilsner style lagers are the most commonly produced beer style in Japan, but beer-like beverages, made with lower levels of malts called happoshu or non-malt happōsei have captured a large part of the market, as tax is substantially lower on these products.
  Microbreweries have also gained increasing popularity since deregulation in 1994, supplying distinct tasting beers in a variety of styles that seek to match the emphasis on craftsmanship, quality, and ingredient provenance often associated with Japanese food.
  Craft beer bars and pubs have also increased in popularity in Japan's major cities, with cities such as Tokyo and Osaka have very vibrant craft beer bar scenes, generally with a focus on locally produced and imported craft beers from the US and Europe. In late 2014, Kirin announced its entry into the craft beer segment with the launch of a wholly owned subsidiary, Spring Valley Brewing, with two brewpubs in Daikanyama, Tokyo, and Namamugi, Yokohama.
context_section_description: Beer or beer-like happoshu beverages are the most popular alcoholic drink in Japan, accounting for nearly two thirds of the 9 billion liters of alcohol consumed in 2006.
  Japan's domestic consumption of the total 187.37 million kiloliter global beer market in 2012 was about 5.55 million kiloliters or about 3.0%. This statistic for total beer consumption in Japan also includes beer-like low-malt beer and no-malt beer products.
  In terms of national per capita beer consumption Japan ranked 51st in 2014, equivalent to 42.6 liters per person, reflecting the diversified alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage market enjoyed by Japanese consumers. Demographic factors are expected to continue to push down sales of mass-market beer products in Japan for the foreseeable future as younger consumers are drinking less beer than previous generations. For the calendar year 2013, overall shipments for Japan's five largest brewers were 433.57 million cases, (a case is equivalent to 12.66 liters of beer or 27 US pints) more than 20% off the market peak achieved in 1992.
  However, for locally produced craft beers accounting for less than 1% of domestic beer consumption  and selected premium imported beers, market opportunities continue to expand. According to local market data, in the first eight months of 2012, shipments of domestic craft beer rose 7.7 percent while sales by Japan's largest brewers continued a year on year decline.
  As of January 2014, Asahi, with a 38% market share, was the largest of the four major beer producers in Japan followed by Kirin with 35% and Suntory with 15%.
caption: Japanese convenience store selection of beer
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