Distillers Japan
A one-page guide to Japan for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Tokyo
- Official languages
- Japanese
- Currency
- Japanese yen (JPY)
- Time zone
- UTC+9 (no daylight saving)
- Area
- 377,975 km²
People
- Population
- 123.3 million (2025)
- Population growth
- -0.5% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 92.3%
- Aged under 15
- 11.2%
- Aged 65 and over
- 30.0%
- Life expectancy
- 84.0 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$4.45 trillion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$36,119 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 1.2% (2025)
- Inflation
- 3.2% (2025)
Climate
Mostly temperate but varying widely north to south: Hokkaido is humid continental with long cold winters and heavy snow, the Sea of Japan coast of Honshu gets heavy winter snowfall and can be very hot in summer, and the south is much warmer. A rainy season and typhoons affect the summer and early autumn, which matters for warehouse humidity and shipping schedules.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 20 (the age of majority fell to 18 in April 2022 but the drinking age stayed at 20)
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 6.26 litres of pure alcohol (2024)
- Traditional drinks
- Sake (rice wine), Shochu (distilled from rice, barley, sweet potato, buckwheat or brown sugar), Japanese whisky
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); NTA - Sake Report (July 2025); Japan Customs tariff, Chapter 22; Wikipedia - Legal drinking age; Wikipedia - Japan; Wikipedia - Shochu; Brand Finance - Japan alcoholic drink brands 2025; The Daily Pour - Brand Champions 2023; The Spirits Business - Brand Champions 2026. Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.