Discussion Are japanese really so anal about drinking alcohol at the appropriate age?

I see this a lot in various anime and manga. This is quite strange to me as although the legal drinking age where I live is 18 years, nobody cares about that except the liquor stores.

It's not uncommon to see those under 18 regularly drinking a few beers and bourbon, especially in family environments. But it's more recreational drinking and not drinking for the sake of getting smashed.

Bonus question 1: How are the alcohol restrictions in your country?

Bonus question 2: Is it common for underage drinking where you are?

 

I am allergic? I dont know why but I am not suited for alcohol at all .
It erodes rationality very very very very very bad.
Chaos does not dull itself to alcohol.
Once I smelled it from afar and got very very bad headache.
No one in my surroundings drink it too.

 

I live in a town where it's uncommon for even adults to drink, let alone children.

 

Well, I am not so knowledgeable about it but it is serious when you get caught drinking. Even Japanese idols who are underage are not allowed to go out and work at night.

 

Isn't it illegal to drink under 21 lol

Nope

Unless you count a tiny sip given to kids so they know how disgusting beer is

 

I think it’s mostly the party kids that do underage drinking~

 

Drinking gets such a bad rep here that it may as well be cannibalism.

 

If you're hanging out with your mates here in Australia and you don't drink ... it's like you've committed a crime against nature or something.

Underage binge drinking is a bit of an issue.
Binge drinking in general is an issue I guess?

 

Drinking has such restrictions because some people just don't know when to STOP! Like seriously, if you know you're getting inebriated, stop drinking. Do you need to start insulting people, punching people, abusing your wife or running over people with your car before you realize that drinking too much is a bad thing? Even when you don't realize that you have become inebriated, you are actually already drunk. It is true that people say that "Drunk people do not realize they're drunk."

Therefore, the government had to create restrictions, since people can't be trusted with restricting themselves. It's always, "Just one more glass" despite everyone already being able to see that they're drunk. The laws are there to protect people from the drunkards, so just obey it.

In Ai-chan's case, Ai-chan can't get drunk due to Ai-chan's extremely high metabolism. There have been only two cases when Ai-chan got drunk. One during Ai-chan's wild days at university. And the other at a bar at a nudist island in South China Sea. Both times Ai-chan was lucky because Ai-chan wasn't driving and the people in the vicinity was kind enough to drag Ai-chan to an empty bed to sleep it off.

To answer the question:
1. Extremely restricted. Muslims aren't allowed to buy alcohol by law and in some states, alcohol can no longer be sold in convenience stores or 24 hour marts. Underaged kids can't buy alcohol at all.
2. Not common at all. Sure some Chinese boys do drink beer from time to time, especially during Chinese New Year among family, but that's about it. As far as Ai-chan knows, there has been no cases of arrests involving drunk underaged persons in the country. It's not like beer tastes good anyway.

But rum, yes, that is awesome. Rum is amazing, especially if you add a little bit of salt and strawberry juice. Yes, mmmm, rummmmm.

 

Compared to other countries ? Yes actually. Diligence and studious still being looked up in there instead of being socially active and rebellious in juvenile culture.

Q1. Not much.
Q2. Yes even if it's actually illegal.

 

What even strange is the setting is medieval europe. Europe where mostly legal drinking age as low as 13 (have to be 18 to buy though) and that is present age. I imagine the past are more lax as there are more pressing matters.

 

Good I think .
Yes but it’s usually just little kids tasting wine thinking it’s grape juice most of the time .