Japan targets drunkenness

Joblessness has been blamed for a rise in drinking

The Japanese government is conducting the first nationwide study into the hazards of excessive drinking in a bid to cut the growing number of drink drivers and deaths from over-indulgence.

Japan's Kyodo news agency says the survey is partly prompted by the fact that alcoholism has increased in tandem with the nation's prolonged economic slump.

A Health Ministry team has started interviewing 3,500 adults who have been randomly selected and is due to complete its study by next March.

Researchers will visit their houses to ask them how frequently and how much alcohol they drink.

Education and treatment are necessary instead of just criminal penalties Chief researcher Susumu Higuchi

The study will seek to determine whether they are alcoholics and whether their alcohol intake affects their relationships at home and at work.

Rise in drink deaths

As well as a rise in drink driving, there has also been an increase in the number of people who have died suddenly after a bout of heavy drinking.

"People who repeatedly drive drunk are likely to be alcoholics," says the head of the research team, Susumu Higuchi, in charge of clinical studies at the government-run Kurihama Hospital.

"Education and treatment are necessary instead of just criminal penalties," Mr Higuchi says. "But in Japan, the measures are still inadequate."

"I believe this survey will show the public the bad side of alcohol and also serve as the basic data for policy-making," he adds.

A national survey on nutrition conducted by the Health Ministry in 2001 estimated there were over 2 million alcoholics in Japan.

Sake stupor

But, says Kyodo, there is no data available so far on the exact number of alcoholics or of the conditions which give rise to alcoholism in Japanese society.

In the same year, some 13,000 people were taken to hospital in ambulances for severe drunkenness.

And in recent years, drink driving has been blamed for about 10% of Japan's road death fatalities.

The 2001 survey found that 7.5% of Japanese males consumed an average of three or more 180-millilitre shots of the rice wine sake daily.

The researchers says they hope "to promote more moderate drinking" in a society which, according to Kyodo is "known for being lenient on drunkards".

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