Japan’s Twittersphere has been abuzz in recent weeks with users offering their own takes on Asahi Breweries’ new canned offering that features a removable top, allowing them to be chugged down like an ice-cold mug of draft beer, known as "nama" in Japanese.
“No choice but to drink at home amid the state of emergency. I’m raising a toast with the nama jokki can,“ tweeted @dalmashatyo on Sunday in Tokyo, with a photo of a foaming can of Asahi and steamed meat dumplings. "Jokki" refers to a beer mug in Japanese.
Beer-makers suffering from a plunge in consumption at restaurants and bars during the pandemic are doubling down on canned beer, backed by tax cuts for regular beer and a surge in household alcohol consumption. Now, with an unprecedented restaurant booze ban in place in Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures amid a state of emergency in effect there, consumers have even less choice but to drink at home — giving products such as Asahi’s new Super Dry an edge.