Cognition Dissemination: Here’s a Way to Get Japan to Drink More

The Japanese government put out a peculiar assessment this past week: It wants young people to drink more. Sales of alcohol in the country plummeted during COVID-19 lockdowns, and it doesn’t appear that they’ll recover anytime soon without assistance. Drinking is considered a social activity in the country, as it is in other territories around the world, but the need to social distance made this difficult for a lengthy period of time. Hence, the country’s National Tax Agency has launched the “Sake Viva” campaign to increase demand for alcohol among young people through services, products, designs, promotional methods, and sales techniques. The final tournament for the winning ideas won’t occur until November, so there’s plenty of time for them to take considerations.

I have one such consideration, an idea that’s been under their noses for several years. The Yakuza games tend to include many bars, the numbers of which tend to increase with every installment. The bars serve a wide assortment of alcoholic beverages, and most of the games include lengthy and florid descriptions regarding the history of each beverage. I was entranced when I first took the time to read all the descriptions in Yakuza 0, marveling at how rich the histories could be and the attention to detail Sega’s development team gave them. They were clearly written by people who’d spent plenty of time drinking at bars while socializing.

Heck, some descriptions were so intriguing that they made me want to try some of them. And before you even stop to think “well, that’s just you,” it’s absolutely not.

The descriptions for these are damn good, as seen through a number of screenshots that can be found online, though the amount of them isn’t heavy. I wish I had the foresight to capture them as I was playing through a number of Yakuza games, but I had no idea that I’d ever need them for a post like this. The games are too long to play through again for the purposes of this post. I never actually tried any of the beverages as I was playing the games for curiosity’s sake, though would have if I had enough disposable income at the time. I would have, of course, done so in moderation.

So, here’s my idea for the Japanese government, which is actually a two-parter: For one, the Japanese government should start actively promoting the Yakuza games, which still have descriptions similar to these, and in particular promote how characters can go to bars. This would encourage players to read those descriptions and get them interested in partaking in them themselves. The second is that more Japanese-developed games should be encouraged to include such features, particularly those that allow for open city exploration. Time to age up the Persona game casts so they can drink at the bars already present in the games and observe those beautiful descriptions. Atlus is part of Sega, so the Persona team could always ask the Yakuza team for assistance if they need it. But I’ll assume they’re still capable of writing them on their own considering Catherine had similar descriptions.

I won’t delude myself or anyone else into thinking that this is guaranteed to work, but that’s precisely what makes it an “idea.” They all involve risks. But even if this one doesn’t pan out, it’s a solid idea that I’d like to see done more in Japanese-developed games, and some of those made outside the country. This would also be a good way to get Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to reemphasize this in the recent Yakuza games and spinoffs like Judgment, as the descriptions were easier to miss in titles made since the team adopted the Dragon Engine for Yakuza 6 in 2016 (released in western territories in 2018).

So, let’s see it happen. RGG Studio recently provided teasers for the next Yakuza game (likely Yakuza 8 in Japan, and with some kind of subtitle following up “Like a Dragon” outside the country and Asia) as part of a development office tour done by mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakura, whose likeness will appear in the game. It’s only a matter of time until they reveal it, which should happen at or around the Tokyo Game Show period coming in less than a month. It would be nice if a government organization could give them promotional assistance by highlighting the staggering array of bars and drinks the game has. If they do, though, it would be prudent to note how drinking should still be done in moderation, as the country’s Health Ministry previously warned.

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