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Japan: Kirin Brewery renews focus on developing more low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages
Kirin Brewery has announced a renewed focus on developing more low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages within its portfolio, after the traditional beer sector hit a 17-year high in 2024, Food Navigator Asia reported on March 24.
Kirin Brewery is Kirin Holding’s brewery arm, and is best known for popular beers under its eponymous branding such as Kirin Lager in the standard beer sector, and Kirin Tanrei happoshu, in the low-malt beer segment.
In 2024, the firm announced that the overall beer market in Japan saw standard beer account for over 55% of the total market for the first time in 17 years.
The standard beer sector benefitted from tax cuts, while the overall category was buoyed by and the introduction of products like happoshu and New genre (no-malt beer) to the market.
Given this positive growth, Kirin Brewery believes this is the right time to refocus its energies on areas of importance in the market.
“Total 2024 beer sales were 111.8 million cases, and our mainstay KIRIN ICHIBAN saw positive growth thanks to the effect of a brand renewal,” Kirin Brewery stated via a formal statement.
“Kirin Beer Harekaze - our first new standard beer brand in 17 years, was launched in April and has led the market with a sales growth of about 30% compared to our initial target.
“[On the back of these positive developments], Kirin Brewery will work on our business strategy for 2025 based on a two-pronged approach to ‘Create the future of alcohol’ and ‘Develop brands to create consumer value’ – these will include focusing on sustainable business development by balancing social and economic values.”
Interestingly, a major feature in the firm’s 2025 business plan includes the promotion of moderation and better drinking habits, centred in plans to market more low-alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks.
“[It is important to us to educate consumers such that] consumers who choose not to drink alcohol can also feel comfortable in communities where alcohol is available, and so that each individual can find a drinking style that suits them,” Kirin Corporate Planning Department Senior Manager Yuko Kusano told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“We will increase the proportion of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol drinks, viewing the diverse ways of drinking as an opportunity.
“We will also actively promote research and the development of technologies to solve alcohol-related problems, and look to foster a culture of moderate drinking by communicating the value of alcohol.”
He added that Kirin Brewery is keen to increase focus in this area for 2025 due to health awareness and regulatory influences.
“There is a growing awareness of health issues around the world, and regulations relating to alcohol are being tightened,” said Kusano.
“In Japan, too, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) issued its Healthy Alcohol Drinking Guidelines in February last year, and as a result the demands on and responsibilities of alcohol-related businesses are increasing.
“[From a consumer perspective], there is increasing diversification of the purposes of alcohol consumption, as well as an increasing number of consumers who cannot drink.
“This could be due to their physical constitution or personal choices – but either way, in order to fulfill our responsibilities as a responsible alcohol producer, Kirin Brewery is working on proposing new ways of drinking [and] to this end, this has motivated us to renew communication on moderate drinking.”
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