One of the first things I did when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus on April 7 was to order two cases of canned chūhai cocktails from my neighborhood discount liquor store, Kakuyasu.
With stay-at-home requests being rolled out in heavily affected areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, it was time to seriously hunker down and stock up on daily necessities. And for some, including myself, that included booze.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told residents to limit the frequency of grocery shopping to once every three days. Bars and restaurants were asked to shorten operating hours. As an alternative to going out drinking after work, online parties became a thing as corporate Japan rapidly adopted teleworking to reduce contagion risks.