German Origins of Japanese Beer: Business and Consumption in Prewar Japan

 This presentation explores the role of institutional, technological, and cultural borrowing from Germany in the establishment of Japanese businesses and consumer markets through a case study of Japan’s beer industry, which was one of the most important modern domestic industries in prewar times. Particular attention will be paid to the processes of indigenization, adaptation, and rejection of this particular foreign model so that Japanese become not only able to contain German beer imports while being perceived to be “drinking like the Prussians” but also expanded beer manufacturing and consumption habits to the rest of Asia.

Harald Fuess teaches modern Japanese history at Sophia University’s Faculty of Comparative Culture and is member of the executive council of the European Association of Japanese Studies. Previously he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and the German Institute for Japanese Studies. His academic training he obtained at the universities of Princeton (B.A.) and Harvard (M.A., Ph.D.).