Did Japan Nearly Have Its Own Prohibition Era?

Step foot in Japan, and it won’t take long to conceive of just how powerful its drinking culture is. Venues catering to those wishing to get sloshed abound: <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/japanese-izakaya-covid-19-virtual-nomikai/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">izakaya</a> (Japanese pubs); top-shelf classic <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/review-tokyo-cocktails-is-fascinatingly-high-class/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">cocktail dispensaries</a>; ten-seater snack bars; British and Irish pubs; standing bars; specialized <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/why-you-hate-japanese-sake/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">sake</a> and shochu joints. Beers flow while salarymen, freed from the shackles of work, hit up yakitori stands and late-night ramen shops, while all-you-can-drink courses help inundate college students socializing at karaoke. Local pride in homegrown sake, shochu, and — in <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/okinawan-names-japan-language-history/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Okinawa</a> — awamori abound. Japan-produced foreign fare booms, from <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/hibiki-17-shortage/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">whiskey</a> to gin to (at long last) craft beer. Despite some recent trends, boozing it up is an almost assumed venue for interpersonal communication. So, you may be surprised that there once was a concerted effort to bring Prohibition to Japan. Like so many historical Japanese stories, this one begins in the 1850s, with <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/odaiba-tokyo-history/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">US Commodore Perry’s arrival in Uraga Bay</a> to forcibly open Japan to Western trade. Jostled from its self-imposed isolation, Japan began to look across the Pacific for cues on how to shape its society in a rapidly changing world; Fashion, technology, military and governmental structures, education, and <a href="https://unseenjapan.com/meiji-mura-a-journey-to-japans-modern-past/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">architecture</a>; the country rushed at breakneck speed toward westernization. The watchword of the day became Wakon Yosai (和魂洋才): Japanese spirit, Western learning. <a href="https://unseenjapan.medium.com/did-japan-nearly-have-its-own-prohibition-era-d3854bbffd6">Read More</a>