Japanese Beer: From Meiji Breweries to Super Dry and Craft Taprooms

Ask for a drink at almost any Japanese izakaya (casual pub) and the first words are often "toriaezu biru," which means "beer, for now." The tall, cold glass with its dense white collar of foam arrives within minutes, and the table raises it with a cheerful "kanpai" (cheers). It feels like a tradition as old as the country itself, yet commercial beer in Japan is barely 150 years old, and nearly all of its famous names were born in the Meiji era (1868 to 1912).

This guide follows the story from the first Western-style breweries to the household names on every convenience store shelf. You will learn who started Sapporo, Kirin, Yebisu and Asahi, why Japan once had three separate tiers of beer-like drinks, how the 1994 rule change opened the door to craft brewing, and how to order, pour and enjoy a glass the way people do on the ground.

How Beer Reached Japan

Sake brewing in Japan is far older than beer, and the first contact with European ale came through the Dutch. During the Tokugawa period, the Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade, from the small island of Dejima in Nagasaki. Knowledge of European food and drink drifted out through rangaku (Dutch learning), but beer stayed a curiosity for the few who tasted it.

Everything changed once Japan signed treaties with Western powers in the 1850s and opened its ports. Foreign merchants, sailors and diplomats settled in places such as Yokohama, and they wanted the drink they knew from home. British export ales reached the settlements first. Soon enough, brewers were setting up shop on Japanese soil, and the government began to see a modern beer industry as part of the push to industrialize.

The Meiji Pioneers

One of the earliest commercial breweries was the Spring Valley Brewery in the Yokohama foreign settlement, founded around 1869 by the Norwegian-American brewer William Copeland. Its assets were taken over in 1885 by the Japan Brewery Company, which brought out a German-style lager under the Kirin Beer name in 1888. Kirin takes its name from the qilin, a mythical hooved creature of East Asian lore, and the company later became a core member of the Mitsubishi group.

Hokkaido tells a different story. In 1876 the Kaitakushi, the government agency developing the northern island, established its own brewery in Sapporo. Seibei Nakagawa, a brewer who had trained in Germany, became the first brewmaster that June, and by September the plant was complete and the first Sapporo lager was produced. The brewery was privatized in 1886 and grew into Sapporo Beer.

Yebisu, Asahi and the Big Merger

Tokyo's own contribution arrived in 1890 when Yebisu beer was first brewed in the capital. The beer became so well known that the neighborhood where it was made took on its name, which is why a major Tokyo district today is called Ebisu. The brand was later relaunched in 1971 as a German-style barley beer, and it is kept by Sapporo Breweries as a premium label.

Asahi arrived at almost the same time. The company was established in 1889, and its original Asahi draft was first produced in 1892. Then came consolidation: in 1906 Sapporo, Nippon and Osaka breweries merged into the Dai-Nippon Beer Company. After World War II, that giant was divided under a law aimed at breaking up large economic concentrations, and the pieces re-emerged as separate brewers. The Nippon side took the Sapporo name in 1964, and Asahi became its own company again.

Super Dry and the Dry War

For decades Japanese lager aimed at a familiar, fairly rich style. Then in 1987 Asahi launched Super Dry, a crisp, dry-tasting beer with a clean finish. It sparked what became known as the dorai sensō (dry war), a fierce competition in which every major brewer rushed out its own dry beer.

The result reshaped the market. Dry beer became a mass category, and the four big brewers, Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory, now mostly make pale lagers at around 5 percent alcohol. Suntory, which began in 1899 as a seller of imported wine and opened Yamazaki, Japan's first malt whisky distillery, in 1923, completes the group. Down in Okinawa, Orion Breweries was founded in Nago on 18 May 1957 and began making beer in 1959, giving the southern islands a lager of their own.

Beer, Happoshu and the 2026 Tax Change

Japan taxes alcohol by ingredients, and that rule produced one of the world's more curious beer markets. Under the law, a product with at least 50 percent malt counts as beer. Drinks with less malt are called happoshu (low-malt beer-like drinks), and a third group, often called the "third category," used even less malt or none at all. Suntory's Hops, launched in 1994, contained 65 percent malt, just under the threshold then required for the beer tax rate. Each tier carried a lower tax, so shoppers saw three price bands on the shelf.

That structure has now come to an end. The government decided in 2016 to phase out the differences in stages, and from 1 October 2026 beer, happoshu and third-category drinks are all taxed at 54.25 yen per 350 milliliter can. Beer's tax fell, the other two categories rose, and the price gap that once defined the aisle has largely disappeared.

The Craft Beer Boom

A change in licensing rules in 1994 lowered the minimum production a brewery needed in order to hold a beer license. Before that, only large operations could qualify. The new rules let small producers open, and the result was ji-biru (local craft beer), brewed in regional towns across the country.

Today Japan has hundreds of microbreweries making ales, IPAs, stouts, pilsners and wheat beers. After an early boom, the craft sector settled into steadier growth as brewers sharpened quality and distribution. Craft beer bars and pubs are especially popular in Tokyo and Osaka, where taps rotate through local brews and imports. Yo-Ho Brewing, maker of Yona Yona Ale, is one of the better-known craft names.

How to Enjoy Beer in Japan

The legal drinking age in Japan is 20, and shops and restaurants may ask for proof of age. In an izakaya, "nama" means draft, and a mug or glass usually comes with a thick head of foam that is part of the style. Cans come in 350 and 500 milliliter sizes, and a traditional large bottle (daibin) of about 633 milliliters is often shared at the table.

Manners are simple and warm. It is customary to pour for others and let someone pour for you, holding your glass lightly with both hands as the drink goes in. Wait until everyone has a glass, then say kanpai together. In summer, rooftop beer gardens on department stores and in hotels are a seasonal favorite. Brewery museums such as the Sapporo Beer Museum in Sapporo also welcome visitors, though hours and tour details change, so check the official site before you go.

Many izakaya begin the evening with an otoshi (a small appetizer brought automatically, which often works like a seat charge), and beer pairs naturally with the grilled skewers, fried chicken and edamame (young soybeans in the pod) that follow. Most cities also have standing bars and convenience stores selling cold cans, so a quiet beer is easy to find at any hour. Ordering by size, brand or draft is simple once the vocabulary is familiar: nama for draft, biru for beer, and ookii or chiisai for large or small.