Alcohol For Foreigners

So because I can't find this information anywhere I feel like I'm just totally missing something or using my knowledge of the very strict booze laws in the US to drive my confusion.

Drinking alcohol in Japan. I know the legal age there is 20 (Myself and my fellow travelers are all 24 and older so no issue there) but how do foreigners purchase alcohol in Japan? Do they check your passport to card you? How about with beer vending machines - I've heard that they have a place where you have to put your license in, but since I obviously won't have that, so how can I purchase?

You go to a store and buy it. Simple as that.

If you buy beer at a 7-Eleven, for example, once the alcohol is rung up, the screen attached to the register will prompt you to agree that you are indeed of age and lawfully able to purchase the beer. It seems to be an honor-based system,

Apart from having to press the button to declare that you're over 20 at combinis (which they probably do just to avoid being held responsible for under-aged drinking), there aren't any special methods for people to buy beer.

In my experience Alcohol vending machines are so rare that it's not worth worrying about them. Personally, I've only seen them around the quieter parts of Taitou and Sumida-Ku. Maybe other people have seen them more often, but it's doubtful you will ever be in a situation where it isn't more convenient to go to a combini.

Some places may occasionally ask for ID, in which case you can show them your passport, which you will legally need to carry with you at all times anyway. Most people I know have rarely been asked to show ID, apart from some nightclubs that have mandatory ID checks.

Can a person drink beer in a public area (without using a brown bag)?

Yes, you can drink in public areas. No need to look like a hobo drinking :p

Not everywhere can you drink in street public. Some areas are prohibited alcohol-free zones.

Is it illegal for under 20 to buy? I thought just to drink? It is possible to send out children to buy alcohol for parent and no problem. I never heard of ID age check for buying drinks, but smoking taspo needed for tobacco.

Some hotels and many ryokans have vending machines for beer and/or sake. In Ikebukuro, there is a vending machine next to the police box in the west of the JR station. Also there are many drunks(though tame) in the area at late night.

It is possible to send out children to buy alcohol for parent and no problem.
this is not true. it is prohibited.

Thanks for the responses. So for the vending machines: do they require ID?

The ones in hotels and ryokans don't require ID. I can't remember the last time I saw one on the street.

But, as said above, it's so unlikely that you'll be a place with no combinis that I doubt you'll have any problem at all with buying all the booze you want.

You might find it more productive to do some research into recognising happushu and other "near-beer" drinks, so that you don't end up buying them in error (unless you like tasteless "beer").

I found the info on this site about it really helpful for learning about the different types. I'm actually not much of a beer drinker myself (I prefer sake and liquor) but I would love to buy it from a vending machine just so I can say I did and check it off of the list of interesting vending machines I've purchased from in Japan xD

I will be staying in Hakone at a ryokan while I'm there so maybe I'll see one! Thanks again for the info (:

It is possible to send out children to buy alcohol for parent and no problem.
this is not true. it is prohibited.
I never said it wasn't prohibited, just not a problem. Just like cycling laws (cycling on the sidewalk, carrying an umbrella on a bicycle, using a 'phone, or riding without a helmet for children is prohibited by law), everyone ignores those laws including the police. Japanese people tend not to follow these sort of minor social laws that don't suit them. It is a nation of law-breakers.

As I say, it's no problem for young children to buy alcohol on their own. And young foreign adults are definitely not going to be ID checked in a normal shop.

@Lady Kodaira. I know that ID checks are really rare in Japan, and it's statistically unlikely that a tourist would experience that on their first trip, but I don't think you can claim there is 0% percent of being asked for ID. I've been asked for ID once at the Kabukicho Donkihote, and a friend also mentioned being asked for ID at a Donkihote (but didn't say which one). Maybe there is one person at Donkihote who is incredibly suspicious of people buying alcohol, but it's something that may happen very rarely. Secret Duckie also didn't say whether or not they had plans to go to nightclubs, which often do have mandatory ID checks, so I thought they may need to know that they can use their passport for ID.

@Secret Duckie If you want to buy alcohol from a vending machine just for the experience, then that makes perfect sense. I just wasn't sure if you thought that they were very easy to find or cheap. Lot's of hotels do have them, but quite often they drinks cost 100 yen more than a convenience store, so I normally wouldn't use them if there's a convenience store close by. They're perfectly fine though if you want to get a drink quickly or do it for the experience.

Yes, if you find a beer m/c in a hotel you get poor choice and have to pay over the odds.

My best automatic beer experience was in a kaiten sushi place where they had an auto machine (I had to get a server to authorise the transaction for me, sort of like in a 7-11), which took a pre-chilled glass, tilted it for me, pouted 4/5ths of the beer, set the glass flat, and then changed pouring speed to pour the final 1/5th of the beer so that it gave a traditional frothy head.

We drank too many beers that lunchtime, purely because the machine was so fascinating!

Buying beer from a regular vending m/c is no different from buying cola. I think the ability to buy hot coffee in a can from a machine is much more impressive. (But I think the coffee is AWFUL!)

I'm surprised by all the people saying that beer vending machines are rare - I live in Shinjuku-ku and see them in several places in my neighborhood. I can actually see two or three when I look out my window right now.

There's no point in debating how rare they are, but they definately aren't ubiquitous like soft drink vending machines, and combinis are much more common. Maybe you live in a neighbourhood that just happens to have more then average, or maybe some of us live and work around around places that have less than average, but I was just basing it on my experience.

I also live in Shinjuku-Ku, on the border of Nakano-Ku. I know my neighbourhood fairly well, I walk to Takadanobaba, Nakano and Numabukuro on a regular basis, I pass by many vending machines and I've never seen one serving alcohol within a 45 minute radius of my house.

Maybe they're comparing to regular vending machines? I also don't find them all that rare. I mean, they're not all over the place but they're not too hard to find if you know where to look (in hotels and near liquor stores for example).

Although I've seen people do this from time to time but the "public" place that I hear it's not fine to drink is in the subway, although the shinkansen is perfectly fine. Otherwise, its fine to drink in public as I pop open a can of chu-hai after I walk out of the conbini from time to time.