According to information provided by CNN Tokyo, the Japanese government has been economically affected by a problem that, at least in Mexico, would not happen: young people do not drink enough.
According to the outlet, as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, bars and other establishments with alcohol sales have been affected by the restrictions, which has caused sales and income from taxes on beverages to plummet.
To fix this, the Japanese government has launched a competition to find new ways to encourage young people to drink more. Long live sake! is the campaign that the National Tax Agency supervises and that invites participants to submit their ideas on how to stimulate the demand for alcohol among young people through new services, forms of promotion, products, designs and even sales techniques, using intelligence artificial.
Promotional ideas for all types of Japanese spirits are included in such a contest and the finalists will be invited to an expert consultation in October, as the final tournament will be in November, of course, in Tokyo.
However, this proposal was not well accepted by all and the tax agency has received some criticism on social networks, as users have mentioned that staying away from alcohol is a good thing and that the government tries to motivate children to drink seems like a joke. .
Still others pointed out that it was highly inappropriate for the government agency to encourage young people to drink and that its campaign failed to consider the health risks and sensitivity towards people dealing with alcoholism.
Despite knowing the risks and avoiding excesses has always been spread, according to a 2021 report, the tax agency said that taxes on alcoholic beverages have always been an important source of income but that they have decreased significantly in the last ten years.
The country’s recovery has been slower than expected, as it is hampered by inflation, the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and ongoing cases of covid-19 that have led to longer restrictions.