Current Issue Highlights
Pubs Abroad: JAPAN
One might be led to believe that, when visiting Japan, one of our favourite
traditions, dropping in at the local for a pint, could be nigh impossible.
Not true at all. While the Land of the Rising Sun is notorious the world
over for taking many foreign customs and changing them to adapt to the
unique Japanese lifestyle, beer is one thing that has remained relatively
untouched. The Japanese equivalent of the local pub is the “Izakaya,” where
overworked salarymen stop in for a quick drink (or many more) with their
friends before taking the last train home. If you’re looking for
something familiar that reminds you of home, scan the signs for the American
word “bar.” Izakaya will be harder to find, as their signs
are almost always written in Kanji, but it can be a good way to get your
feet wet in Japanese culture. 
The differences, when you first set foot into an izakaya, are immediately apparent. The decor in almost all of them is much more understated than in a pub, eschewing flashy neon and football on the telly in favour of simple banners, called “Chitsuke-hata,” and specials written on a chalkboard. The goal of the izakaya is to calm, rather than inflame, the senses. Once you are seated, either at the bar, or more likely, in a private booth with your friends, the menu will have a lot more to offer than a typical bar. Prices are low, but individual items are small, and meant to be shared. It’s not like a restaurant where one is expected to order one thing one time, and that’s the lot of it. The main downside of an izakaya is that they are, by design, much more for taking friends than making friends. That’s not to say you can’t have a good time in an izakaya by yourself, but it will definitely lack the camaraderie with strangers that an average pub seems to generate.
Japan might be most noted around the world for its sake, but “biiru” is the drink of choice for most Japanese, especially when they go out. The three most popular brands of domestic beer are (in order of popularity): Asahi, Sapporo, and Kirin. All three of them produce as their main product a light lager not too dissimilar from Stella Artois or Budweiser found worldwide. The prevailing preference throughout Asia is for the lighter beers, and it is only recently that brewers have started to be more adventurous. Asahi and Sapporo both now produce a black lager, which is a step in the right direction. However, with almost all of their import competition coming from Budweiser and Heineken, there is not much of an impetus to explore more palatable alternatives.
If light lager is not to your liking, you needn’t worry. Nearly every tavern one would be likely to wander into offers Guinness, though curiously, it’s nigh impossible to find it on tap. Instead, most pubs opt for a surger, a device which takes special “flat” Guinness from a bottle, and shakes it up a bit with ultrasonic pulses. The end result is indistinguishable from all but the most perfectly poured pint. What this means to the globetrotting pub-crawler is that the Guinness you know and crave can be found far from home, even if the bartender isn’t trained in how to pour it. It’s also a marvellous example of how the Japanese are able to adapt technology to suit their purposes. On the downside, Guinness is likely the ONLY Stout you will find in a pub anywhere in Japan. Pubs with an English or Irish theme are an exception to this, but they will be few and far between, and their prices will be commensurate with their selection.
Sadly, the microbrewery revolution which has taken the UK and the States by storm has not had a foothold in Japan. Places which might offer the likes of Black Wych, Fat Tire, or Samuel Adams are very rare. If you simply must have a microbrew, you will only find them in liquor stores, and expect to pay a premium. As far as domestic microbrews or “ji-biiru” (regional beer) are concerned, it wasn’t until 1994 that government regulations were released enough for microbrews to come into existence. With only 13 years in existence, none of them have the distribution infrastructure that you can find in other countries. So, you will just have to ask your pub if they have a ji-biiru. If they do, you might be delightfully surprised.
If business or pleasure takes you to Japan, fear not the loss of the local. Around every corner is a place where friendly people are drinking familiar beers. If your taste in beer is more adventurous, you might have to do a bit more searching, but it shouldn’t take too long to find a place where you feel just as at home as you do at your own pub back home.
