It was just a regular Friday, but lovers of beerlike beverages found an excuse for another round as the country's major breweries marked down their versions of "happoshu."

In back-to-back moves June 21, four major breweries cut the price of their flagship low malt brews to 135 yen for 350-ml cans, from 145 yen.

The price war, estimated to cost makers tens of billions of yen in profits, is being driven by cutthroat competition in a market largely devoid of brand loyalty.

Concocted less than 10 years ago to bypass steep beer taxes, happoshu has rapidly become a preferred alternative to beer.

In the first half of the year, shipments of happoshu grew 15 percent from a year earlier to 100.87 million cases. The ratio of happoshu in the overall beer market came to a record high 38.9 percent, up 6.7 percentage points.

Kirin Brewery Co., which made a splash in the market with the February release of Gokunama, 10 yen cheaper than rival products, maintains it did not intend to trigger a price war.

The product was simply the result of a drastic departure from traditional marketing practices, Kirin said.

Gokunama was promoted in print but not on TV. The company also avoided promotional kickbacks, which are traditionally paid to volume wholesalers and retailers.

Yet the leader in the happoshu market -- around 40 percent last year -- was forced to mark down its other happoshu products, including its flagship Tanrei, in the wake of a surprise announcement May 31 by rival Asahi Breweries Ltd. to cut the price of its Honnama by 10 yen.

"We decided to cut the price out of consideration for our No. 1 status, because we did not want to see our customers pay higher prices," said Kirin President Koichiro Aramaki.

The last to enter the happoshu market among major breweries, Asahi was apparently aiming to claim the top spot in the happoshu market after ousting Kirin from the beer market throne a few years ago.

"We had really good consumer reaction when we marked down our product during a 'thank you' campaign earlier this year, and we decided to offer it at the price on a permanent basis," said Mikako Izumizaki, company spokesperson.

Given the two front runners' moves, Sapporo Breweries Ltd. had no choice but to follow suit, dropping the prices of its Hokkaido Namashibori and Tarunama Jitate to 135 yen.

"We want to compete in product quality, but we have to level the playing field first," said Takashi Muramoto, senior official of Sapporo's marketing division.

Meanwhile, Suntory Ltd. has attracted consumers' attention by carrying advertisements on its cans.

Released in mid-June with ads for casual clothing chain operator Uniqlo, Ad Nama is scheduled for its the next shipment in late July, sporting ads for music giant Avex Inc.

Cans will cost 125 yen.

But the product shipment of 800,000 boxes is only a fraction of Suntory's total shipment of 37.5 million boxes planned this year. The firm has had to slash the prices of other happoshu products to the same level as rival products.

The breweries maintain they will be able to secure profits by implementing rigorous cost-cutting measures.

Kirin, which estimates a 10 billion yen loss in operational profits if costs remain unchanged from last year, said it will make up for the losses by trimming unessential marketing costs by 12.2 percent from last year to 101 billion yen.

"For instance, we are going to cancel some TV commercials," company spokesman Makoto Ando said.

But industry watchers remain unconvinced.

"The war of attrition" is unduly taxing the financial health of the already embattled breweries, especially those which have delayed diversifying business operations, they say.

"I think Sapporo is especially vulnerable in this price war, " said Yutaka Yoshida, president of research firm Distributing Business Study Co. "It's an uphill battle for them to keep their 15 percent market share."

The breweries nonetheless rushed to cut prices, Yoshida said, because of the prospects of a possible happoshu tax hike later this year.

Under the alcohol tax code, the beer tax is 77.7 yen per 350-ml can. The levy on its low malt cousin is 36.75 yen.

"They want to solidify their market shares before that," he said.

Meanwhile, retail stores complain they bear the greatest burden. At many discount stores, the price for a 350-ml can has slid into the low 90 yen range for a 24-pack box.

"It brings us nothing good," said Satoshi Mine, executive officer of Mine-Mart Co., a Kanagawa-based discount liquor chain store operator with 214 outlets, noting the chain would lose around 200 million yen in profit this business year if sales remain the same as last year.

While happoshu and beer still make up more than half of liquor sales, thinning profit margins are increasingly making retailers turn to other liquor products, according to Mine.

"We used to showcase beer and happoshu in store fronts. But recently, we are gradually pulling them from prime spots because there aren't enough profits and they don't attract customers like they did in the past," he said.