Story of Asahi: how Japan’s favourite beer survived two world wars to become a household name
- Asahi has survived brand and flavour changes, world wars and competition from rivals to maintain the crown of Japan’s top beer manufacturer
- Established in 1889, the company’s most successful selling beer is Asahi Super Dry
Realisation can dawn slowly or arrive with a thunderclap. For me, I instantly understood I had made a life-changing error in returning to Britain as I stood in a Japanese supermarket in North London.
As Japanese expat housewives busied themselves by emptying the shelves of packets of “dashi” cooking stock, dried seaweed, noodles and countless other ingredients critical to the Japanese kitchen, I stood transfixed. Against one wall stood an eight-case-tall stack of familiar silver cans with stylised black writing reading Asahi Super Dry.
I experienced flashbacks of countless izakaya with friends and work colleagues, a cold silver can on a hot Japanese beach or even a cold can on a bundled-up stroll through the park in the dead of winter. Airport waits went faster with a swift Asahi; a film on a rainy Sunday afternoon; I carried one to the top of Mount Fuji to toast the achievement.
I can neither confirm nor deny my wife’s claim that she saw a tear trickle down my face on that day in the supermarket. The work of Asahi Breweries was not the sole factor in subsequent developments, but it was certainly my breaking point: we moved back to Japan, for good, less than six months later.
Beer is widely accepted to have been introduced to Japan around the middle of the 19th century and gradually became popular, particularly with the moneyed classes as they took their cues from European trends. With more trappings of Western civilisation introduced to Japan in the latter part of the century, it was inevitable that small breweries began to be established.
“The Osaka Beer Company, the predecessor of Asahi Breweries, was set up by a group of entrepreneurs, including Komakichi Torii, in 1889,” says Takuo Soga, a spokesman for Asahi Group Holdings. “The sole purpose of the new company was to produce a world-quality beer in Japan. The company completed the Suita-Mura Brewery in 1891 – the first modern brewery in Japan – and Asahi Beer was launched the following year.”