& do they card people at restraunts, clubs, bars for a certian kind of identification?
2007-01-08 16:43:40 · 10 answers · asked by oooloru 1 in Travel ➔ Asia Pacific ➔ Japan
The age of majority is 20, but it's routinely ignored when it comes to alcohol. It's not as if a vending machine could ask for ID in any case, and there is no equivalent of a liquor board.
2007-01-08 17:39:23 · answer #1 · answered by michinoku2001 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Age 20
2007-01-08 16:52:38 · answer #2 · answered by jaci 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
no real ID checks at all. Especially gaijin who don't speak Japanese. What you may not know is the penalty for public drunkeness can be harsh. As a visitor, if the want to really throw the book at you, you could be banned from rentry for up to 5 years. As long as you drink responsibly you will be fine. Drink get drunk, pass out, just do not get into anyone's business or any trouble. What usually happens is gaijins get drunk, stumble around and end up riding away on somone's unlocked bicycle. Riding a bike while under the influence of alcohol is considered the same offence as driving a car drunk.. Yeah, silly, but we were warned about that by our company HR. All of the gaijin employees just laughed when we read the email.
2007-01-09 00:09:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can drink legally at 20. But it's kind of a law with no meaning in Japan. College students under 20 often drink. Some of the high school kids buy booze and drink it. I haven't seen them card people in my life.
2007-01-08 23:41:22 · answer #4 · answered by Black Dog 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the others have stated, no you are not asked for your ID when you order alcohol.
But if you look really young (Like Jr high and lower) they will probably ask how old you are. My friend's 28 but is short and skinny and looks really young. We went to a liquer store in Tokyo 3 years ago so he was 25 then. We were buying wine and beer when the dude at the counter asked him if he was actually a legal age to drink. The guy wasn't convinced until my friend showed him his driver's license.
So they do stop you sometimes. But very rarely.
Also when I was in highschool I was walking in Shinjuku with a bunch of my friends smoking. All of a sudden this lady came up to us and started asking us if we were over 20.
Mind you this was in a middle of a very crowded area at 11:00PM.
Turned out she was like a volunteer worker who specializes in catching underaged drinking and smoking in certain districts. We were taken to the nearest police office and they called our parents basically ratting us out.
All my friends got in trouble but my parents lived in the US at the time and I acted like I couldn't speak Japanese so they let me loose. Woohoo.
Also if you look young and smoke or drink in front of a cop chances are they will ask you how old you are. Unless of course you're accompanied by other adults.
And the biggest reason why they don't ask for ID in Japan is I think because people don't regularly carry them. It's common for people to not have a driver's license (I never got one while I lived there). It's common for people to carry proof of insurance around but that doesn't have a picture on it so it really doesn't work as an ID.
2007-01-09 06:57:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Japanese Drinking Age
2016-10-22 06:24:10 · answer #6 · answered by kula 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The drinking age is 20.
And if you are a not Japanese they probably wouldn't card you unless you were really young or acting like a knucklehead.
2007-01-08 22:42:00 · answer #7 · answered by tokyocowboy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
♡They're right, the beer AND cigarette vending machines in my area have a 'seal' on them stating that no one under the age of 20 may buy alcohol or tobacco from them, but I don't think anyone enforces it.
Take a look:
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m69/Cyn_010/P1000601.jpg
(They also shut down from 11 pm ～ 5 am in my area. Like that helps.)
My nieces visit me here in Japan often and the 16 year old ordered wine and beer FOR ME at restaurants and was never asked for any type of ID.
(I was in the restroom, at the salad bar..."Order me a beer 'K?"; I said.)
I was quite surprised!
～You never know though, you may get asked for ID or you won't.
Hope this helps!♡
http://www.planettokyo.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/detailgroup/navid/10/cid/63/
2007-01-08 20:20:20 · answer #8 · answered by C 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
20 year old.
However when my visit to Japan, people there knew I haven't reach 20 but they offered me alcohol. So I think everything would be fine. I even went to their casino.
2007-01-09 18:04:46 · answer #9 · answered by Naixius L 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
20 years old.
2007-01-12 00:30:41 · answer #10 · answered by Looking for the truth... 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋