In the can

I came across an interesting factoid while looking at the ICHI-GO-CAN press release listed below – the company Agnavi claim that cans make up 50% of alcoholic drinks containers worldwide. [Why does nobody cite their sources?! The only other figure I could find from an analysis company was 38% of the total beverage market, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, with 40% of those cans estimated to hold soft drinks. Fact.MR] The company also reports higher consumption of canned drinks among consumers in their 20s, 30s and 40s. [Again, no sources cited.]

They further break down figures for beer – 8.2% in bottles, 19.4% in casks or tanks, 72.4% in cans – and for sake – 42% in bottles, 53% in “paper” (presumably cartons), and just 5% in cans. And they highlight the fact that many sake breweries are, similar to beer breweries, small to medium in size.

Cans are cheaper, lighter and more portable than glass, easy to recycle and easier to finish in one sitting, which may make them more attractive as an impulse purchase. They can also be chilled quickly or placed in hot water to heat sake, are fairly tamper-proof as it’s clear if they’ve been opened, and protect their contents from UV light. 

Agnavi’s offering to small and medium sized sake breweries is a complete filling service using rented 1000 L tanks from a logistics company and an in-house canning line. CEO Shigehide Gen points out that a lot of beer and chūhai is canned, but as canning only makes sense for larger batch sizes it isn’t an obvious choice for sake breweries working with low volumes. And for many there’s also the question of where to put a canning line in often old or small buildings. So Agnavi instead buys sake from each brewery by the tank, then cans and sells it themselves. 

The company has also run a number of successful crowdfunding campaigns, including a collaboration with the adorable kōji-kin mascot from Moyashimon.

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Agnavi (not dated, Japanese)
なぜ〝缶の日本酒〟は定着しないのか？一合缶の日本酒「ICHI-GO-CAN」が変える未来 (Masakazu Sawada reporting for Yahoo! News, 2 July 2024, Japanese)