【Receipt-data survey】Signs of a return to beer after liquor-tax unification, but consumers in their 20s did not shift; those in their 40s to 60s drove the trend

Kurashiru,Inc.’s Recichalle analyzed approximately 9.29 million receipts to track purchases of beer and related products before and after the alcohol tax revision on 1 October 2026. During the 3 weeks after the revision, the share of people purchasing beer was approximately 1.2 times the year-earlier level, while beer purchases increased by more than approximately 20%. The share of people who shifted from happoshu and new-category alcoholic beverages to beer expanded to approximately 1 in 6 people (16.4%) after the revision. The periods covered were 10–30 September before the revision and 1–21 October after the revision, with the same period in 2025 used for comparison.

Differences by age group were most pronounced among people in their 40s to 60s. The difference was +2.3 percentage points among people in their 50s, while the difference among people in their 20s was +0.3 percentage points, indicating almost no change. The trend of younger people moving away from beer continued in this survey, and the beer purchase share among people in their 20s remained low.

Among people who preferred happoshu and new-category alcoholic beverages, 8.6% purchased only beer during the 3 weeks after the revision, up from 5.2% during the same period a year earlier. Conversely, the purchase rate for happoshu and new-category alcoholic beverages after the revision fell by 31.0%, suggesting that the reversal of stockpiling also had some effect.

Among people who purchased beer, approximately half selected only beer, indicating an increasing tendency to choose between categories. The share of people purchasing beer together with products from other categories rose only moderately. The purchase rate for brands renewed from new-category alcoholic beverages to beer was approximately 1.2 times the year-earlier level, while that for other new-category products was approximately 0.7 times. The survey was based on an analysis of receipt data.