How big are soft drinks in Japan?

January 30, 2007
By Ken Worsley

Obviously, soft drinks are popular in Japan. There are vending machines everywhere and convenience stores stocked with them positioned every 500 meters or so. One site claims that there are 5.6 million vending machines in Japan, or one for every 20 people in Japan, while showing pictures of some of Japan’s more unusual vending machines. And more unusual vending machines.

However, it’s soft drinks, and not vending machines that I’m interested in. The soft drink industry is huge in Japan; market leader Coca Cola is followed by Ito-en, Suntory, Kirin, Asahi, and a host of others. Product life tends to be very short; Coca Cola Japan has been known to introduce 30 new products in a year, selling each with a massive campaign and then letting them die as the ‘newness’ wears off for the consumer. But, the question remains: just how many soft drinks do Japanese people drink each day?

Ken Y-N at What Japan Thinks has some information for us that he’s translated from Japanese. The amount of information is quite comprehensive, so check it out. One result that surprised me: over 40% of the Japanese public drinks soft drinks every day. I actually thought it would be a bit higher. Shows what I know…

Filed Under Econ Light, Retail