Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. You must recall that the various state governments were criticized for opening liquor shops in India due to the lockdown caused by pandemic. But, the state governments did not heed these criticisms in view of the huge revenue from liquor. It is not that only in India, there is a lot of revenue that comes from alcohol. In other countries it is also the main source of revenue. In Japan, people have reduced drinking alcohol for the last few years and this trend led to an economic bleeding.

Govt organized competition to encourage drinking

The Japanese government has even organized a competition to encourage the youth to drink more alcohol. The share of revenue from alcohol in the total revenue of the Japanese government has come down to 1.5 percent. Once this share was 5 per cent. The Japanese economy has been hit by a 3.5 percent reduction in alcohol revenue. Therefore, now the government has sought ideas from the youth to increase the consumption of alcohol in the country. For this a competition has been organized.

Efforts to revive the popularity of alcohol

The Sake Viva competition, run by Japan's national tax agency, has asked 20- to 39-year-olds to come up with ideas and business plans to revive the popularity of alcohol in Japan. Entries have been invited from all over the world in this competition and ideas can be sent till 9 September. The Japanese tax agency has asked youth to share ideas of every modern technology, from metaverse to artificial intelligence, to increase the trend of alcohol.

Heavy loss to revenue

In the 1980s in Japan, a huge revenue of 5 percent of the total income of the government came from alcohol. In 2011, the share of revenue from alcohol was 3 percent. In 2020, there was a huge fall in it and it came down to just 1.7 percent. Japan is already in a deficit of 290 billion pounds. Japan is facing a loss of more than £110 billion in revenue compared to 1980.

Old Age population also a reason

One-third of Japan's population, or about 30 percent, is 65 years of age or above. In old age, Japanese people are giving up alcohol to give importance to healthy life. In such a situation, the government there is working on new ways to encourage young people towards alcohol. However, some people in Japan are opposing this campaign of the Japanese government. Some people say that a country cannot progress by encouraging the consumption of alcohol.