STRONG ZERO – Il “drogaggio” più controverso del Giappone del XXI secolo.

STRONG ZERO – Il “drogaggio” più controverso del Giappone del XXI secolo.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] this was a statement made by Dr dr matsmoto Toshiko head of the drug addiction research department at the National Hospital of Neurology and Psychiatry in Japan he’s not afraid to continue to express his firm negative sentiments regarding strong or strong zero as they’re more commonly called even claiming that the Japanese government should classify and regulate them as a dangerous drug hearing such deep concerns from Dr max Poto leads us to the question what is so horrifying about Strong Zero that would lead one of the most renowned doctors in Japan in the field of drug addiction to be so overwhelmingly worried and are these concerns actually valid so without further ado let’s talk about the rapid rise and the somewhat overfall of Japan’s most controversial drug of the 21st century to understand the road to how Strong Zero took over the minds of the Japanese youth it is important to understand just exactly what these controversial beverages are in his brief history in 1984 Takarashu a midsized Japanese alcoholic beverage company released a canned alcoholic beverage named Takarakan Chuhai the first ever canned version of the Chuhai alcoholic drink just give me a signal tonight [Music] but first of all what exactly was chuhai the word chuhai is an abbreviation of shou as that is what chuhai essentially is at the fundamental level a mixture of Japanese shou and carbonated water with added flavors such as lemon lime orange pineapple or any other flavor of choice ever since adding carbonated water the syrup added chou is said to have become popular in the 1950s postwar Japan the popularity of chuhai drinks served in isizakayas and restaurants across Japan steadily increased leading to what many in Japan term as a chuhai boom in the 1980s and after seeing the success of the first canned shuhai released by Takarashu many of the bigger alcoholic beverage manufacturers in Japan such as Kirin Sanuri Asahi etc began entering the canned shuhai market [Music] now when watching the video up to this point you may naturally think “What exactly is so evil about these fruity carbonated beverages with this 3%ish weak alcohol content did they secretly add in cocaine or something?” Well no although that would have been quite something watching cooked up Japanese celery men in isakayas across Tokyo after they got off from work the historical impression regarding Chuhai across Japan for the most part was innocuous enough during the early years until the 2000s it largely had a reputation as a drink that was consumed by salary men in their 40s and 50s who couldn’t tolerate alcohol too well as in yes they inevitably had to go to that afterwork drinking session with their co-workers but just could not down that traditional sake or whiskey with the high alcohol content thus having to resort to you guessed it chuhai but then a drink that merely targeted men in their 40s to 50s with a low alcohol tolerance was frankly just too small of a market for the profit-driven Japanese beverage corporations to be content with hence juhai such as the peach tree fizz began to be constantly released from the late ‘9s leading into the 2000s with the theme is a beverage women won’t be embarrassed to drink on the shinkansen and various true high commercials starring female actors began to be aired across Japan during this time in order to target the female consumer market however such expansion was still not enough to satisfy the greed of the major Japanese beverage manufacturers while thinking of how they can increase the sales number of their can chuhis even more the manufacturer Kirin came up with a rather brilliant idea release a version of chuhai with a significantly increased alcohol dosage compared to their other standard versions at a staggering 8% alcohol content and call it as chuhai hill catches strong they were very smart with this as they increase the alcohol dosage of the beverages just barely below the point that they do not get taxed more by the Japanese government to elaborate although the Japanese government imposes a higher tax rate for the conventionally brewed alcoholic beverages such as beer give me for carbonated alcoholic beverages such as chuhai that has an alcohol content of less than 10% the liquor tax rate is extremely low as in ridiculously low of 80,000 yen per thousand L which is the lowest rate for drinking alcoholic beverages in Japan and similar in rate to alcohol contained within seasonings such as red wine in a vinegar product [Music] this meant that manufacturers could sell these strong chuhis at immensely low prices effectively targeting the budget conscious drinkers in Japan who wanted to get drunk faster at a lower cost and Kitten’s release of the Chuhai Hill gets it strong was an immediate success leading them to reach 70% of their annual goal sales number in just 1 month in 2008 and you guys can already guess what is coming seeing the success that Kin was having with their Chuhai Hill gets a strong this is the hardest ever other major alcoholic beverage manufacturers in Japan soon followed suit with their own Chuhai Strong lineup now many of the consumers of True High Strong had one large concern in mind that the high alcohol content will extend their waistline with their relatively higher calories and with Japan being the weight conscious nation that it is this was indeed a serious concern for many consumers and the corporation that saw right through this was none other than Sanuri a Japanese alcoholic beverage manufacturing giant for relaxing times make it Centuri time in February 2009 merely a few months after Kirin released the first ever Chuhai Strong into the Japanese market Santo released the now infamous Strong Zero which promised the weight conscious consumers that they will not get fat from the drink due to the beverages zero sugar content and needless to say Santo’s strong zero with 8% alcohol content became an immediate hit motivating Santoi to push the boundaries even further and eventually increase the alcohol content of their strong zero lineup to 9% santo time just 1% below the dosage before they begin to be slapped with a higher tax rate by the government and with that the problematic can that will later be described in a decade time by doctors across Japan working in the field of substance abuse and addiction as a drug that takes away people’s consciousness whereas more colloquially described in places such as the Japanese side of X a drug that obliterates all your thoughts has finally been born ever since it release in 2009 Strong Zero essentially conquered Japan during the 2010s according to Santoi the makers of Strong Zero they sold 26.92 million cases of Strong Zero in 2010 but then in less than 10 years time the sales number of Strong Zero in Japan grew more than four-fold as their estimate sales number of Strong Zero was an astonishing 112.14 million cases in 2019 and if you keep in mind that one of such cases held 24 cans of Strong Zero each that is 2.691 691 billion cans of Strong Zero consumed by the people in Japan in the year 2019 japan currently has a population of approximately 124.5 million by the way now of course it is not as if the consumption of Strong Zero was evenly distributed among people of all ages and gender in Japan i mean I don’t think I’ve ever heard the case of a 7-year-old Japanese grandmother struggling with a Strong Zero addiction there very well may be but it’s just simply not common however the demographic that does seem to mainly suffer from a strong zero addiction seems to be those from around early teenagehood on the early side to around 30 years old at the oldest to provide you guys with a real life example let’s quickly check out the confessions of Sagi Udai a former alcoholic who suffered from a severe strong zero addiction he states that during his early 20s he was essentially broke but with a can of Strong Zero costing even less than 200 yen which was actually cheaper than a bottle of Coke he found relief from it every night and used it as an aid to fall asleep and the next thing you know he says that he was drinking a bottle of Trung Zero with his bento dinner bought from the convenience store on his walk home from the station you guys get the idea this led him to gradually develop a tolerance soon leading him to drink five to six cans of Strong Zero a day the element that seems to be scary about Strong Zero is that it doesn’t really feel like you’re consuming heavy amounts of alcohol when you in fact are according to Sentagisan he says that before he discovered Strong Zero and used to drink the traditional heavy liquor such as Japanese shoou or the Korean soju he experienced stomach irritation which naturally put a limit to how much he could drink however such was not a concern for Strong Zero as he says that drinking it regardless of how many cans did not upset his stomach but then again we have to keep in mind that Strong Zero has some heavy alcohol content the amount of alcohol contained in just two cans of Strong Zero is literally the same as the amount that is in a bottle and a half of Korean soju now if you’ve ever drank soju before you’ll know that drinking a bottle and a half of soju just straight up is hard you just feel that ethanol running through your body every time you take a sip but on the other hand drinking two cans of Strong Zero is just exponentially easier of an experience making it feel as if you’re almost drinking a lemon flavored soft drink but as the amount of alcohol that enters into your system is basically identical the impact on your body and mind from drinking two cans of Strong Zero is also identical to that of drinking a bottle and a half of soju let’s talk about the body part a little further sentang eventually reached the peak stage of alcoholism he says that he was drinking 10 cans of Strong Zero on a daily basis as if he didn’t he’d feel nauseous and dizzy making him unable to function during the day and during his annual health checkup he discovered that his liver was essentially shattered the doctor told him that if he was in his 30s he would have definitely gotten cerosis of the liver sandisan was then sent to a hospital that specialized in treating alcoholics and was given proper medication so yeah the gradual destruction of the body is unequivocally a huge problem for the Strong Zero addicts however interestingly enough when doctors in the field of drug addiction raise their voice regarding the dangers of Strong Zero you also don’t really see them talk about the physical effects of Strong Zero as much but what they do seem to be far more concerned about is the destruction of the mind the harmful psychological effects caused by Strong Zero especially towards the nation’s youth now to be completely fair the psychological effects of Strong Zero for its avid consumers does not seem to be well technically all bad in Japan the average individual is very much known to be reserved people rarely speak out their real thoughts and mostly keep things to themselves however this nationwide consumption of Strong Zero by millions of people across Japan led to somewhat of a meme movement online called by the people in Japan as Strong Zero literature to explain many in Japan who did not dare to let their thoughts out on a public space such as X went sober after a few cans of strong zero began turning into their own versions of Murakamiharuki and wrote short pieces of literature on X while in their intoxicated state you know enlightening one or two liners such as strong zero is poverty in a can what does the zero represent in strong zero hope india may have invented the number zero but Japan invented strong zero and every time they wrote something artistic they’ll proudly put the hashtag Strongzero literature and hey who knows if a few cans of Strong Zero by the side may be that last catalyst that a blooming Japanese writer needs to let their literary talent out to the very fullest but that just frankly cannot seem to be the case and the main reason for that is because while a small minority of casual or early addiction stage drinkers of Strong Zero may have that last bit of artistic juice inside their minds to write an illuminative piece of Strong Zero literature on X for the vast majority of people in Japan such as Sandisang who has reached that stage requiring 10 cans of Strong Zero a day for me survival the inside of their minds are not a place that is suitable for generating works of original literary masterpiece their brains are just absolute utter toast nuked out of their minds either on the streets or inside their homes and if they have not passed out from all the cans of strong zero and do have a bit of consciousness still intact their thoughts tend to gravitate towards the negative side rather than the positive to elaborate according to Dr from Masmoto he states that during his time of treating the youth in Japan with an addiction problem young people who overdosed on various OTC drugs to get high had a tendency for self harm such as cutting their risks or suffered from a severe eating disorder to the point of passing out almost often simultaneously also had a problem with strong zero dependency he also claims that from his own experience young girls and women seem to be more affected by this problem in which he statistically corroborates by showing the number of people in Japan under the age of 20 being hospitalized through emergency ambulance transfer and as we can see there are far more young women in Japan who are being carried to the hospital for an overdose related cause compared to young men under the age of 20 now when it comes to young women being hospitalized due to losing consciousness from a serious eating disorder the connection between Strong Zero and their hospitalization seems pretty clear according to Dr matsoto many young women under the age of 20 in Japan who feel the urge to go on an eating binge rather take the option of drinking multiple cans of strong zero to the point of passing out as they think that Strong Zero would be just to use the direct wording less fattening compared to alcoholic beverages such as beer not to mention food but when it comes to Dr matsumoto’s claim regarding the connection between Strong Zero and OTC drug overdose and acts of self harm further research and substantiation seems to be necessary as after all Strong Zero addiction may very well not be the cause of the OTC medication overdose or the self harm problem but rather a symptom a byproduct young women who suffered from heavy domestic abuse at home and were already very unstable psychologically and were already prone to conducting acts of self harm may have also just happened to pick up Strong Zero and drink it on the side meaning that Strong Zero itself did not directly leave the young women to conduct acts of self harm hence more research does seem to be desired when considering the linkage between strong zero addiction and whether it directly leads to other extremely deltorious acts such as OTC drug overdose or conducts of self harm but more in-depth academic research regarding the true harmful effects of strong chu ice is seemingly being thankfully picked up by academics and medical field practitioners in Japan for instance Professor Yoshoka of Cayo University and Dr so of Psychiatric Medical Center conducted a nationwide study in 2022 to see whether strong chuhigh consumption actually had any direct association with hazardous and harmful alcohol use among current alcohol users and to keep it short the answer was yes according to the research it was concluded that strong chuhigh consumption did have a direct relation to Hazard’s alcohol practices such as heavy drinking out of control drinking morning drinking and all kinds of other drinking problems and as a combination of all of such developments academic research coming out substantiating the dangerous nature of strong chuhis doctors coming out calling strong zero directly as a drug and this being publicized in the media photos and videos of homeless teenagers across Japan such as took kids in Tokyo or having cans of strong zero next to them the Japanese government finally took somewhat of an action in February 2024 the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare of Japan put out a detailed official guidelines for healthy drinking which was essentially a warning to the large Japanese alcoholic beverage manufacturers that if they do not tone down with the promotion and sales of their high alcohol content Chuhis additional changes in the actual liquor tax laws give me eventually be implemented in the future this somewhat of had an effect as large manufacturers such as Asahi that once had 79 strong products with an 8% or more alcohol content halted the sales of their entire strong lineup altogether in 2024 such was also the case for Saporo but do you remember which corporation was the first to put out the Strong Zero lineup that’s right Santo and Santo seems to at least for now give absolutely no care regarding the government guideline who the [ __ ] is that guy who the [ __ ] is that you know damn well know who I am their Strong Zero lineup always sold by far the most across Japan compared to the ones from other Japanese alcohol manufacturers meaning that they just have a lot more money to lose on the table by stopping the sales of their Strong Zero selections santoi actually got into quite a controversy back in 2019 when they put in the words meat cash win on all of their strong zero cans to promote an event that they were conducting at the time people criticized them asking whether they were selling alcohol to a bunch of apes with their planet of the apes type boarding ingrained in all of the strong zero cans apes together strong this clearly demonstrated that Santo already knew that most of the brains of their consumers of Strong Zero at this point were complete toast thus resorting to an advertisement warning that even a person with half a new brain would understand so yeah this is the current zeitgeist of Strong Zero in Japan in the year 2025 much of the average citizens across Japan are no longer consuming Shung Zero at this point due to the accumulation of negative stereotypes around them beginning from the pandemic era such as how it’s a drug how it’s a toxic beverage only drunk by broke homeless teenagers etc but then for many of the youth across Japan strong heroes are literally still the only financially viable option for them to get drunk on with their extremely low prices and high alcohol content and according to Dr kamatsmoto many impressionable young people actually take this recent suicidal labeling of Strong Zeros as a drug as it makes them feel different feel more hardcore per se but most importantly as with how Senai used to be back in the days much of the Japanese youth are already hooked on Strong Zero to the point of no viable return so if you ever travel to Japan in the future and happen to walk by the Shinjuku area of Tokyo at night and see a young woman with a can of Strong Zero in one hand and her smartphone on the other perhaps you can ask yourself did the incessant drinking of the brain 9% Strong Zero held in her left hand cost the cop marks on her wrist or are the cans of Strong Zero merely a tool a tool to cope to numb to forget about the bigger problems in their lives such as loneliness poverty and domestic violence that has come to characterize the lives of much of the youth in modern Japan [Music]

#STRONGZERO #Japan #Documentary
How did a canned drink in Japan cheaper than a dollar, come to be termed by the doctors in the country as one of the most dangerous “dr*g”s for Japan’s younger generation?
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0:00-1:21 Introduction
1:24-3:18 Sponsor
3:19-6:21 The Brief History
6:21-9:41 The Disfiguration into STRONG ZERO
9:42-13:21 Conquering Minds, Destroying Livers
13:22-15:55 #STRONGZEROliterature （#ストロングゼロ文学)
15:56-18:58 The Fast Lane to Self-Harming Thoughts
18:58-21:10 The Release of “Government Guidelines for Healthy Drinking”
21:11-22:44 Is STRONG ZERO one of the causes of social decay in Japan, or a symptom?