Wine, Beer, Liquor? It's all Sake Here

A late afternoon sip of 酒 (sake), or rice wine, can also remove any rough edges off the day. Sake is also the word for alcohol in Japanese, and as you wander around the country this Kanji is one you will see often. Many of the liquor shops in a typical Japanese town are named after the family that owns them. The old liquor stores, or 酒屋 (sakaya), often belonged to prominent families in the area. The local government decided who got liquor licenses, making for a system ruled by favoritism and nepotism.

There were rigorous background checks into the family tree before any license was issued, which created a monopoly protected by a series of laws. One such law was based on population quotas: The number of liquor licenses was limited according to an area's population. Another governed the land space necessary to create a liquor-selling premises, thereby ensuring only the wealthier land-owning families could afford to start up the business.

Deregulation of liquor license laws began over 30 years ago, but few meaningful changes were made until the 1990s (probably owing to the political influence the license-owning families commanded). One of the first reforms was on the hours that alcohol could be sold. This brought about a proliferation of vending machines selling beer and cups of sake even after the sakaya family members had closed up shop and gone to bed.

Seven-Eleven Japan Co., the country's biggest convenience store chain, and its rival Lawson Inc. now sell liquor at most of their stores 24 hours a day. The demand for alcohol vending machines, popular during the early stages of deregulation, has almost all but disappeared.