Yamagata City Tops 2015 Household Alcohol Consumption

April 3, 2016 by Christopher Pellegrini 1 Comment

Shochu, whiskey, nihonshu, and wine in the back row, with a can of beer in front.

As happens every year, the numbers on annual household consumption were released for public perusal.

As is so often the case, the municipalities that led the nation in terms of total alcohol consumption were mostly located in northern prefectures. The winner in 2015, with an average household expenditure of ￥51,640 for the year, was Yamagata City.

Yamagata City wasn’t even in the top 10 two years ago, but an increase of 46% year-on-year was enough to beat out Niigata City whose average household alcohol budget was virtually unchanged from a year prior at ￥49,950.

Here are the numbers for the top 10 cities in 2015:

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So the big question now is, what happened last year in Yamagata City to boost alcohol consumption by nearly 50%? The data breaks alcohol consumption into seven categories including shochu, whiskey, nihonshu, beer, wine, chuhai (RTD cocktails), and happoshu/new type beer-like drinks.

Yamagata City does not appear in the top ten for household beer purchases, but it is no lower than seventh in all six of the remaining categories.

About Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini, author of The Shochu Handbook, happened upon shochu more than a decade ago, and his curiosity was piqued by the dearth of published information about it. Many years of distillery visits, palate refining, and test taking later, he became one of the few Certified Shochu Sommelier (SSI) to be born outside of Japan. He now spends his time conducting shochu and awamori tastings, writing for various food and drink publications, and consulting restaurants, bars, and distributors on how to bring these drinks into the fold.
A native of Vermont, Christopher was an accomplished pole vaulter and spent several years working for Otter Creek Brewing where he eventually inhabited the night brewing shift. Little did he know that his experience making good beer would lead him to a career in another high quality drink thousands of miles away. After a year in Spain and two in South Korea, Christopher moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2002, where a distinct lack of craft beer sent him straight into shochu's open arms.
He has since found a home talking about Japanese food and drinks for an international audience. He is the host of Japan Booze Blind and Ishokudogen, two web series that cater to Japan's culinary fans around the world. Christopher holds an MA in language education from University College London's Institute of Education, and is the English translator of the survival Japanese textbook Konnichiwa, Nihongo! He has also been published in print and online outlets such as Koe and Global Insider.

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2015 Japanese Household Shochu Consumption says:

April 4, 2016 at 11:27 am

[…] was announced last month that Yamagata City led all Japanese municipalities in household alcohol consumption in 2015. While not topping any of the seven individual alcohol categories measured, Yamagata City did […]

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