Age for drinking/admission

What is the legal drinking age and admission age for clubs in Japan?

The legal drinking age is 20.

Thanks Sira. Can those younger than 20 go into clubs or drinking establishments with their parents?

Clubs ID check everyone, so even with parents I doubt they will let you in.

Drinking establishments however are very very relaxed on checking ID cards, in fact in all my time here I have never been IDed for a drink.

However I have always been 100% IDed for entering a club.

are you joking?
maybe you're asian or you look 15? that is the only reason i can think of.

i have NEVER EVER seen ANYONE asked for their ID at a club or bar or izakaya or any other place in japan, ever. in fact the only time i see people getting their id checked is foreigners at the airport by the police that are there to harass you, and foreigners who are out waaay late at night by themselves or being loud.

Then I suggest you go to some of the popular clubs in Shibuya. Everyone was being checked. Asian, white, black, red, purple and green. If it weren't for the big looking yakuza type guys outside of those clubs I would take pictures to show. Any case, this was only at CLUBs, I already mentioned they never do it in "regular" establishments for drinks.

Any case "legally" speaking it's 20.

There seems to be a pretty large gap, in one hand the process of purchasing drinks or going to a bar or izakaya or just getting a drink in a regular establishment, carding is virtually non existent.
Going to Clubs on the other hand, your experience might very from soft to very strict depending on the club. This seems to be a sentiment shared by others as well if you browse through blogs on the internet.

In my experience clubs always check ID, and bars/izakaya never check.

I recently got back from Japan and I was never ID'd. Perhaps because I went to a club in Roppongi and I had a Japanese escort. In any case we weren't ID'd and we were ALL underage(18). It was cool, not like we were acting like dumb asses. My friends went out every night and never got Id'd no matter where they were.

Roppongi is the WORST for id harassment. I seriously doubt you were underage and go into a club there.
There is plenty of law enforcement around there, no establishment would run any risk.

I don't know how I can possibly prove it to you, but I can assure you it did happen. :[ Like I said, my escort had some connections and I possibly bypassed that part of the "admittance qualifications". Regardless, its possible in some places and situations. Its all relative at this point. o__o

Like other people have posted, the drinking age is 20 and clubs are generally the only ones to ID people.

Last summer though we went to a few clubs in Shibuya with some underage people (18-19) and even though the bouncers checked their passports they were let in anyway and allowed to drink.

I don't know if it is always like this, but it happened on many separate occasions.

A lot depends on who's working at the door and if you're a female or male. If you are a hot looking female usually can get in most places.

I think that "college age" (18) and older are pretty much tolerated as long as they can behave like 20 year olds.