Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2012

Saké, shochu and whisky may pack a harder punch, but beer tops them all in sheer consumption—it accounts for two thirds of the nine billion liters of alcohol downed yearly in Japan. Brought over by the Dutch alongside clocks, telescopes and all the rest, beer in Japan really took off with the arrival of the German breweries in the Meiji era. Today’s market is dominated by the titanic Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Yebisu brands—though ’90s laws paved the way for a recent microbrewery boom.

Retail in Japan obsessively innovates new product variations—and a glance at a conbini fridge will show beer is no different. Season-specific brews, girl-only cans, and flavored versions abound. Nestled among the lagers is the infamous happoshu, the outcome of Japan’s unusual alcohol tax system. Any brew whose malt content does not exceed 67% is taxed less heavily than beer, and is accordingly sold more cheaply. The downside is that malt content can drop as low as 25% in the cheapest products, leaving a lot of room for such unwelcome “malternatives” as rice and starch.

This legal categorization has resulted in a panoply of tax-evading fakes, imaginatively packaged to look like any other beer but which taste distinctly weak and watery. If you think you’ve hit upon a bargain can, check the can to see what you’re buying: any genuine beer worth its malt is labeled ビール, whereas the happoshu are marked with the kanji 発泡酒 (lit. “foaming spirits”). The latter will save you some ¥20 (and possibly a few calories), but they’ll cost you in flavor and drunkenness. The choice is yours. See Kanji Korner (below) for more alcoholic wordplay.