Analysis on Japanese Beer Labelling

Recently, Craft beer has been gaining more popularity. Although it might seem more expensive compared to the major manufacturers' products, lots of people are still rather attracted to craft breweries products. I would like to feature the labeling standards for beer while mentioning the definition of craft beer and pointing out its differences from the local beer.

On the first hand, according to the website of the National Tax Agency, the “local beer” is described as follows:

Local beer is made in a microbrewery with a production capacity not exceeding 2000 kl* per year in a single production site. According to the amendment of the Liquor "Tax Act "in April 1994, the standard for the minimum production amount required to obtain a brewing license was lowered from 2,000 kl* to 60 kl*. Therefore, brewing beer on a small scale became possible.
*kiloliter

In addition, there isn’t a clear definition for the “craft beer” in the Japanese standards; in fact, people now are mostly regarding craft beer as a local beer. On the other hand, there seems to be a general concept in the United States considering these breweries as local beer breweries. So, if you are interested, please read the following.