Sake cups

Rice wine 酒 さけ sake

酒　さけ　‘sake’, rice wine

(these days ‘sake’ is a general term for ‘alcohol’)

福　ふく   fuku　Happiness

Well… it is one kind of (temporary) happiness

Enjoy, but please do the anti-social bit at home.

Alcoholism is certainly a problem in Japan. There is no denying that it is part of society. However, if you consider the size of the population, it doesn’t seem as bad as other countries. Perhaps it shows in different ways. One factor which has a huge influence on this social issue is the social disgrace once you have been identified; it is quite severe.

Therefore a lot of drinking happens at home, behind closed shoji, so to say, or at company do’s. When there are drinkies at a company’s do, the other employees take responsibility for each other. Taxi’s are organised and everyone is looked after. In this way the alcoholic intake is regulated, organised. But not all drinking is “managed” like this.

The homeless in Japan are testimony to a more public form of alcoholism with often a history of gambling and other personal misfortune behind it. Being homeless serves as a sad reminder for others. But what a price to pay!

One thing which struck us was that the homeless were so “presentable”, so “amiable”, so “pleasant” so as not to bother you. We never in all our years in Japan came across beggars or botherers. Offset by this social aspect is the fact that numerous other Japanese spend a fair bit of their life time in service to help the homeless and the alcoholics – a tremendous sense of social responsibility. 

There is something intrinsically sad to see derelicts in a modern society. See also homeless.