a japanese campaign is urging young adults to ditch sobriety for a few more drinks

‘sake viva!’ tells japanese youngsters to get drinking

 

Launched recently by the Japanese Tax Agency, ‘Sake Viva!’ is an unsual business contest urging the country’s young people to ditch sobriety for a few more drinks. This campaign responds to sharp declines in alcohol consumption over the past few years, which put a dent in tax revenues related to this industry. 

 

According to government figures, young Japanese do not indulge in drinking like their parents — particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Indeed, numbers for alcohol consumption have fallen from a 100 litres in 1995 to 75 litres in 2020. Encouraging youngsters to get drunk is not exactly a power move to encourage, but Japan is worried about making ends meet, since its alcohol tax revenues makes up only 1.7% of total revenues today. 

image © Stephen Chen via Unsplash

 

 

open call for unusual business plans to reverse the trend 

 

Wanting to reverse that trend, the Tax Agency has launched its unorthodox ‘Sake Viva!’ business contest inviting people aged 20 to 39 to propose new ideas that will get the young generation drinking again. Proposals include marketing schemes (branding and promotions) and even AI-related business plans. In addition to Sake, participants can also focus on selling their peers new cravings for beer, whiskey shochu, and regular wine. 

 

Open calls will be running until September 9, 2022. Winning participants will work alongside experts to develop their business ideas further before presenting the final proposal in November 2022. 

 

Reactions to this campaign naturally involved outrage and criticism over promoting such a problematic (and potentially dangerous) trend. However, on the other side of the spectrum, pure excitement began to spread across social media, where users began sharing their out-of-the-box suggestions for the ‘Sake Viva!’ campaign. 

image via Sake Viva! 

image © Zaji Kanamajina via Unsplash

image © Xtra, Inc. via Unsplash

 

image © Charles Postiaux via Unsplash 

 

 

project info:

 

campaign name: Sake Viva!

launched by: Japanese Tax Agency 

open call until: September 9, 2022