Japan’s National Tax Agency has launched a nationwide competition to devise new ways to encourage young people to drink more alcohol after-tax revenues from alcohol shrunk to their lowest level in decades.
Alcohol sales have been declining since their peak in 1995 and suffered a sharp fall at restaurants and bars during the pandemic, which brought tax revenues from the sale of alcohol down from around 5% of total revenue in 1980 to 1.7% in 2020.
However, the campaign to help “revitalize” the nation’s liquor industry has drawn criticism from health campaigners and was not coordinated with the health ministry, although the two say they are in close regular contact over alcohol and health issues.
The elephant in the room that unseated the incumbent
Bitcoin soared above $89,000, boosted by President-elect Donald Trump’s vow that the U.S. will become the “crypto capital of the planet.” Bitcoin is now worth some $1.74 trillion worldwide.
