Japanese beer

This is about Japanese beer. In Japanese, beer is called "bakushu", if we write in kanji. This means malt liquor. But we normally says "biiru" which is beer in Japanese pronunciation. In the bar or restaurants, it's written in katakana like below.

In Japanese law, beer must use more than 66.7% malt as its material. So if malt is less than 66.7%, we can not call it beer, but less alcohol tax instead. Beer with less than 66.7% malt is called "happoushu" which means sparkling liquor. Try, when you come to Japan!

Draft beer is called "nama biiru" in Japanese. "nama biiru" means "rare beer". If you want draft beer in bar or restaurants in Japan, say only "Nama!". Nama means rare , but you'll get cold draft beer.