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Answerman - Do Japanese Businessmen Really Drink As Much As I've Heard?


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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Got nothing on South Koreans, though.
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Knight-Hart



Joined: 27 Mar 2014
Posts: 266
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:18 pm Reply with quote
I know someone whose wife is Japanese, and apparently her father is pretty much always drunk. Drinks before work, sometimes during, and lots after.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:24 pm Reply with quote
You'd think that a reduced amount of productivity from workers with hangovers would do something to curb the drinking culture in companies. Then again, the prevailing attitude of "suck it up and keep working" probably keeps many from admitting that there is an issue.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:28 pm Reply with quote
Justin wrote:
All of this isn't to say ... that their drinking culture is somehow fundamentally wrong...


Um, yes it does Justin. Yes it does.
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Ushio



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 629
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:29 pm Reply with quote
'Looks at fellow British citizens'

Must be the traditional heavy fish diet that comes with living on an island, how else are you supposed to get rid of the taste of jelled eels and cockles after all.


Last edited by Ushio on Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:29 pm Reply with quote
As some one who refuses to drink on general principle, I need to remember to never get a job in Japan.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:53 pm Reply with quote
I knew a bit about drinking culture from my friends who lived in Japan but at Otakon 2014 I went to a panel about it. Yeah, as a teetotaler it is terrifying. I couldn't even imagine. My one friends who also doesn't drink said it wasn't to big of a deal when he was out there but he was also teaching in JET not dealing with businesses. Though, he did say some places just severed alcohol instead of water!

Another good story is when my Grandparents visited relatives out in California in the late 70s or early 80s. They went to a Japanese restaurant for the first time and my Grandfather a WWII vet said he could drink these ^&%s into the ground. Lets, say it didn't go well for him.
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MadHi



Joined: 10 Mar 2014
Posts: 188
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:14 pm Reply with quote
So, even if I don't drink for religious reasons, I'm still royally screwed if I don't over there.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5886
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:22 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
"Drunk drivers are now legally required to seek a medical test to determine whether they have an addiction problem".


Quote:
"Worse yet, many people who are struggling don't seek out treatment, due to a social stigma that anyone who has so little self control is a total degenerate".


Quote:

The societal expectation that you need to drown with your coworkers in a potentially addictive substance after hours but if you ever develop an addiction you're weak or lesser-than is pretty brutal.


Logic be damned.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:33 pm Reply with quote
The Japanese never had Prohibition, so, like England and Ireland's pubs, they never had as much of the social stigma about going out to a place on the downtown corner to sit, socialize, and drink for the sake of drinking as an evening's activity.
The closest we get to buddy-bonding over drinks (at least after college) is the sports bar, where guys get together over a few pitchers of beer, watch the bigscreen game, and argue over who has to be the designated driver so they don't cause fatalities on the way home.
(When Prohibition started, the villain wasn't the drink itself, it was the corner saloon that would tempt in innocent victims--Before the 1910's, beer in bottles was a relatively new invention, so if you wanted one beer after work, unless you had your own keg to tap, you had to stop in where the boys hung out, the bartender would slide you down one on tap, and once you got to socializing, it was rarely ever just one.)

Someone's probably got the link, but I remember reading an article of Japanese cultural traveler's advice for visiting America, and one of the eye-opening trans-Pacific revelations was "In America, nobody cares how much you can drink". Because, it explained, Americans saw someone drunk as "a danger" and "someone who lacked discipline and self-control".
To the Japanese, the ability to go kamikaze in your drinking is more of a badge of honor than the ability to show self-control, because the after-work drinking is usually more about how much you're willing to go all-out together with your friends and co-workers, rather than be a wet blanket and put your selfish ol' home and family first.
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Nomdrac8



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:34 pm Reply with quote
Vaisaga wrote:
As some one who refuses to drink on general principle, I need to remember to never get a job in Japan.


I raise a toast (of non-alcoholic beer) to you my fellow teetotaller!
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
Posts: 359
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Attendance is not literally mandatory, but not joining in can be a surefire way to torpedo your career because nobody will like you after that. Especially not your boss. The same goes for showing up and not drinking alcohol.

And that's one of the reasons why I abandoned "brilliant" idea to move to Japan one day. Honestly, I saw plenty of alcoholics in my life, working your ass off just to become one is not among my life priorities.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:37 pm Reply with quote
I'm one of those fortunate ( or unfortunate depending on your viewpoint ) individuals who cannot drink. I don't metabolize alcohol very well so a modest amount of beer or any hard liquor will cause me to black out. It isn't fun, believe me.

Mark Gosdin
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SpacemanHardy



Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Posts: 2509
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:39 pm Reply with quote
My mom is another person who cannot drink. She has an allergy to alcohol which causes her to break out in hives if she even has a tiny bit.

I, on the other hand, possess a near God-like tolerance to alcohol, so I'd probably fit in just fine. Very Happy
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Cyclone1993



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 947
PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:47 pm Reply with quote
I don't drink due to religious, moral, and health issues. So that begs the question how does one get around it? Because it's never exactly stated other than deal with it and try not to become an alcoholic...
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