Under The Counter was horrified to discover that Japan’s national tax agency has launched a competition to come up with ideas to turn the nation’s younger generation onto the bevvy.
Not that he’s against such a move – he was horrified that they weren’t drinking in the first place.
Apparently, new habits that young adults picked up during the pandemic have caused the country’s alcohol sales to hit the floor harder than a sackful of sumo wrestlers. Now the ‘Sake Viva!’ campaign hopes to reverse this trend and halt an accompanying fall in tax revenues.
Just why Japan’s generation sensible turned away from drink during lockdown is a mystery to Under The Counter, mainly because a legally enforced extended spell stuck at in the house with Mrs UTC had him speeding like a bullet train towards the nearest bottle of Famous Grouse.
A booze-related story like this hasn’t shocked the Auld Boy so much since the NHS issued guidance about only drinking 14 units of alcohol. He had initially grudgingly accepted this, until someone pointed out that the figure was per week, not per day.