A Few Questions on Alcohol Beverage Industry in Japan?

Question

How are alcoholic beverages sold in Japan? Is it 3 tier, controlled, or franchise style system? Which way would be similiar? Who are the largest alcoholic beverage distributors in Japan? Any companies likes Diageo, Pernod, or Brown Forman work as a supplier or are they able to distribute spirits on their own? How would one go about lookng for employment with a company that specializes in spirits in Japan? Lots of questions - sorry - just not sure where to find the answers.

Answer 1

Finding work in that industry for an American would be next to impossible. You would need to be able to speak, read and write Japanese at a native level. Not a whole lot of Americans can do this. Jobs like this will always go to a native Japanese first anyway.

Not only that, for most people, you will need a four year degree and a solid job offer to qualify for a work visa.

Answer 2

The Japanese system would be closest to a 3 tier system. There are separate government licenses for producers, distributors, and retailers of alcoholic beverages. Something like a brewpub is very rare in Japan. The largest businesses are probably the domestic producers such as Kirin, Suntory, and Asahi. There might be larger retailers such as a national supermarket chain, but they don't specialize in alcohol, so it's not the same.

Companies like Diageo and Pernod obviously don't have production in Japan, so they aren't producers in Japan. Their products like Johnny Walker and Wild Turkey are very popular in Japan. They also have their local subsidiaries Diageo Japan and Pernod Ricard Japan, respectively. Diageo Japan does some distribution of their own, such as with Guinness, but they mostly are a supplier to domestic distribution partners such as Kirin, Sapporo, and Nishuhan (a major wholesale distributor).

I don't think Brown-Forman has a presence in Japan yet. Jack Daniel's is very popular in Japan, but it's imported and distributed by Suntory.

I think the best chances for a spirits job in Japan would be with a foreign importer such as Diageo Japan or Pernod Ricard Japan. They wouldn't have much use for a non-Japanese speaker in marketing, so the likely employment would be with the importing operations. The prospects may be limited, but a deep understanding of the spirits business and a determination to work in Japan should be good to overcome that.

Answer 3

The top 4 Japanese brewery are Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory.

Kirin holdings contains alcohol, soft drinks, foods, pharmaceutical and biological business.

http://www.kirinholdings.co.jp/english/

Asahi is rather beverage specialized company.

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/english/

Sapporo is very famous to foreigners by the brand name.

http://www.sapporoholdings.jp/english/

Suntory is from rather whiskey distiller than brewery and still famous by their malt whiskey.

http://www.suntory.com/

They all have similar distribution channel like their own route to distributors or  through agent wholesalers and agent retails in Japan.

There are many independent Sake winery besides.

Alcohol beverage are distributed by manufacturers own subsidiaries or grocery distributors to markets, street vending machines and restaurants.

There are many middle scale Japanese distributors but  is not such huge conglomerate international distributor because of unnecessity and law barriers.

Diageo, Pernod or Brown Forman may do business but to clear many problems there, it is just not profitable for them in Japan.

You can ask any position in Japanese Alcohol beverage industry but even if you have strong skill or experience about this industry, you have to speak least Japanese to communicate with Japanese.

Answer 4

>Is it 3 tier, controlled, or franchise style system? Which way would be similiar?

I don't think either of them is correct. Alcohols are sold at supermarkets and convenience stores in Japan.

>Who are the largest alcoholic beverage distributors in Japan?

I think it's one of the supermarkets.

>Any companies likes Diageo, Pernod, or Brown Forman work as a supplier

I've never heard of them.

>How would one go about lookng for employment with a company that specializes in spirits in Japan?

You cannot find a job other than English teacher so easily.

Answer 5

First, the industry of providing alcohol is highly controlled by the government in Japan like many other countries because taxation from it was one of the main sources of income for the government.

Then, you can see few foreign companies of alcohol in Japan.

Second, as many things in Japan, we can see the mixture of old and new in Alcohol Beverage Industry.

The market is divided along what kind of alcohol do they sell.

For example,

Suntry keeps a top in wiskey,

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E...

Gekkeikan and Hakutsuru are top two in Sake,

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:%E...

Kirin and Takara are bigger in Shohtsu (Tsuh-high),

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:%E...

and Asahi and Kirin have large share in Beer market.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:%E...

Third, Japanese alcohol market is rather late because of the strict regulation by the government and seems still keep vertical integration. Each of main players mentioned above has it's own provider.

The last, regarding retail sales, mass merchandiser and category killer are getting popular more and more, regardless of the goverment intention to keep cosmos of the market by so many small ma-and pa stores licensed to sell alcohol by the government.

hope this helps!