JI-BEER
1994: the year small breweries began.
Photo: Jens Cederskjold / CC BY 3.0
26 September 2026 · Craft Beer
The annual minimum volume for a beer licence fell from 2,000 kL to 60 kL.
A rule changes
The April 1994 amendment to the Liquor Tax Act made beer licences attainable for small breweries. The beers that followed across Japan were called ji-beer — local beer.
Town breweries
Several breweries in this archive began brewing beer in 1996–97 — Kiuchi in Ibaraki, Minoh in Osaka, Ise Kadoya in Mie, Fujizakura Heights in Yamanashi among them.
SOURCES
- 1ビール・発泡酒に関するもの（お酒の豆知識）国税庁 東京国税局 National Tax Agency, Tokyo · Government · accessed 2026-09-26
- 2酒類の製造免許における最低製造数量基準の在り方について（税務大学校論叢110号）国税庁 税務大学校 National Tax College · Government · accessed 2026-09-26
PHOTO CREDITS
All image credits →- 1Brewhouse — Jens Cederskjold · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons