Tabor House in Trenton, New Jersey

Tabor House is a residential community where men can learn to live in a safe, clean and sober environment. It is a place where the dignity once lost to addiction might be restored.

• http://www.taborhouse.org/taborhouse_site/News.html

THE INVENTOR OF WORLD'S FIRST ZERO ALCOHOL BEER A JAPANESE WOMAN - NAMIKO KAJIWARA

NAMIKO KAJIWARA - THE BRAINS BEHIND THE WORLD'S FIRST NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER WITH ZERO PERCENT ALCOHOL

Meet Namiko Kajiwara of Japanese beer company, Kirin Brewery. Back in 2007, when the Japanese government introduced stricter DUI laws, she decided there ought to be a non-alcoholic beer with absolutely zero alcohol in it. Many so-called "non-alcoholic" beers contain anywhere between 0.01% to 0.5% alcohol. In April 2009, Kirin introduced the world's first non-alcoholic beer with 0.00% alcohol - a fact that is prominently displayed on the label.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal of Japan, the NIKKEI, honored Kajiwara's contribution to the success of this surprising hit product of 2009:

http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/e/ac/tnks/Nni20091215D14HH086.htm

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Female Hit Makers Recognized For Innovation, Sales Savvy

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Shoppers may be pinching pennies, but some products have proved irresistible regardless of the dismal economic conditions. The driving forces behind some of these successes have been women, and five of them made Nikkei Woman Magazine's annual ranking of Japan's top female movers and shakers.

Among the hit makers on the Woman of the Year 2010 ranking, Namiko Kajiwara, who played a leading role in developing Kirin Brewery Co.'s non-alcoholic beer, placed the highest.

Kirin Free, released in April, is the world's first non-alcoholic beer that contains zero alcohol. Within less than two months of its debut, sales surpassed the annual target of 630,000 cases (1 case=20 633ml bottles), prompting the company to raise the goal to 3.5 million cases just six months after the product's launch.

Kajiwara came up with the idea for the beverage in 2007, when the road traffic law was revised to crack down on drunk driving. Because conventional non-alcoholic beer actually contains 0.1-0.5% alcohol, she thought there would be demand for a beer that contains not a drop of alcohol.

In doing market research, Kajiwara spent the bulk of her time defining a vision for the product, eventually coming up with the phrase "contribution to society."

She explains that Kirin can contribute to society by offering a beverage that can slake drivers' thirsts without intoxicating them, thus making the roads safer.

Prominently displayed on each can of Kirin Free are the words "alcohol 0.00%." To drive home the message that its product is truly non-alcoholic, Kirin conducted a sampling event at a highway rest area.

Thanks to such efforts, Kirin Free became a smash success, winning over everyone from drivers to women who are pregnant to people who cannot drink alcohol for health reasons.

Power of perseverance

Some of this year's hit makers made the list thanks to their thorough research and tenacious efforts in introducing new or improved products.

Yuriko Kure spent about a year studying people's thoughts about laundry before coming up with the concept behind Kao Corp.'s (4452) Attack Neo liquid laundry detergent. But coming up with the concept -- a detergent that saves water, electricity and time by requiring only a single rinse -- was just the start; four more years were spent developing the product before Attack Neo hit the market in 2009.

Another hit maker, Keiko Nishida of Sharp Corp. (6753), has since 2002 been developing air purifiers that incorporate the firm's proprietary Plasmacluster technology. By making many product improvements, such as finding a way that enables people to see with their own eyes how effectively a device is cleaning the air, she played a significant role in expanding air-purifier sales at Sharp, which holds the largest share of the market.

The other two hit makers made the list on the strength of their innovative promotional campaigns.

Yuka Komori of Shochiku Co. (9601) led the promotional team for "Departures," which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Because of budget constraints, Komori took a word-of-mouth approach, drawing more than 100,000 people to previews in order to create a buzz, among other advertising tactics. The movie became a blockbuster, raking in more than 6.4 billion yen at the box office.

Akiko Sengoku, who works for cosmetics firm Nihon L'Oreal KK, persuaded the parent company in Paris to let the Japanese unit do its own advertising to better appeal to local tastes. This helped make Oscillation, a Lancome-brand mascara product that uses a vibrating brush, a product that the company claims sells "once every 30 seconds."

Nikkei Woman Magazine is published monthly by Nikkei Business Publications Inc.

(The Nikkei Marketing Journal Dec. 13 edition)

Other related links on this blog:

1. http://sobermd.blogspot.com/2009/07/kirin-beers-surprise-hit-product.html

2. http://sobermd.blogspot.com/2009/08/japanese-invasion-000-alcohol-free-beer.html

Comedy: Mitchell & Webb's "Lager Beer"

I saw that crash on the Taconic last Sunday...

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/1306619502.html

I saw that crash on the Taconic last Sunday...

Date: 2009-08-05, 1:46AM EDT

Driver in N.Y. wreck that killed 8 was intoxicated

Im sure other people on this board must have seen it as well. I was drvivng home from my summer house upstate. There was a 10 minute rain storm so everyone slowed down, then the rain stopped and everyone sped up again.... Suddenly about a mile from the turn to get on the sawmill, cars just stopped . Brake lights as far as I could see. Stopped in the middle of a three lane highway...There were trees in the median bewtween the north and southbound lanes, and behind the tress was a huge, black plume of smoke going up into the sky. I was on a motorcycle, so i could go between the cars and move up to see what happened. Once I came around the bend, off to the side of the southbound lane, a mini van was upside down, completly engufled in flames. I could feel the heat from the flames as I pulled by. Hundreds of people were running from both sides of the North and South lanes of the Taconic. I pulled over and got off my bike, and try to take in what was happening.

The burning mini van was popping and sparking every once in a while, I assume something inside was making small explosions as they caught fire. I pulled behind a white van on the side of the highway, a Chinese man got out and was talking to me but frankly i cant remember a word we said to each other. About 20 feet from the burning mini van, there were clusters of people kneeling around what I assumed were the crash victims. Every 10 feet or so, there was another cluster, kneeling down.

Each one had a person pumping the chest of the victims while the other people were helping any way the can. Everyone was running with they're cellphones screaming frantically.

I noticed what looked like a station wagon, across the median. The entire front was smashed to the point where you wondered where the hell the engine could have gone. it looked like the cars front began at the front seat. I noticed the cluster of people closest to me, probably 15 feet away, and I saw a pair of tiny blue shorts, and small legs sticking out from the group of people. I knew it was a child, and as the father of a 6 year old daughter, I knew it was a girl. I couldnt see her face, only her blue shorts and her legs. Nothing was moving. A man in a white shirt was pumping her chest, and screaming for help. I thought for a moment of walking over to see what i could do, but it was so chaotic, and there were so many people already. People just abandoned theyre cars on the highway and ran to help. I looked at her legs, and there wasnt a scratch on them. I looked at the man pumping her chest, with the white shirt on. Every so often he'd turn to scream something, and there was no blood on the front of his shirt.I thought about what she may have looked like from the waist up, and I'm really glad I never got to see her face.

There was one cop there when I arrived, and you could see on her face, that she was really freaking out. She must have just pulled up before I got there and was assesing the situation. I'll never forget the look of panic on her face. One man ran passed us and got a first aid kit out of his trunk. All this happened in probably 4 minutes. Now you could hear people screaming to get back in they're cars because the fire engines couldn't get through . The fire engine was stuck behind all the cars on the Northbound side. Sirens and lights wailing.. An EMS guy jumped from the fire truck and started running towords the scene, screaming into his walkie.

I noticed a man leaning against his car weeping. Total strangers were coming up to him and huggin him, and by his body language and his movements of what he was describing, I knew he was one of the people that pulled these kids out of that burning car. He was inconsolable. So were the people hugging him. I got back on my motorcycle, and turned on to the Sawmill, back to NY. I saw her legs and blue shorts over and over again. i could not get them out of my head. I pulled over a mile down the road, got of my bike and starting crying harder then I've cried in a long time. I've been a New Yorker for 23 years. It takes a lot to shock or disturb us, but holy shit , this disturbed me.

It was a horrible thing to see. It's effected me in a surprising way, still is a week later. I have a daughter, and the thought of course thats been running through my head, along with the never ending vision of those little blue shorts, and pale white legs, not moving, it could have been her. In my dreams when i see the man in the white shirt pumping her chest, i walk over and see my daughters face. Not a scratch on her, just eyes closed as if shes sleeping. I imagine thats what that little girl looked like while they were desperatly trying to get her to breathe.

I rode by the spot yesterday coming back from upstate again. Theres a big chunk of earth where the mini van rolled and scorched grass where it sat and burned. I thought I saw a cross with some flowers on it , but I wasnt sure.

As the facts come out about what really happened, and turns out this woman was drunk, and high, I'm torn between anger and incredible sadness. Anger as an adult and father, who's sole purpose in life is to protect, and teach my child right from wrong. Anger having seen a dead child laying in the middle of the median, knowing that child was probably singing or playing with her doll, having no concept she was going the wrong way on a fucking highway, trusting her mother. Completely innocent. My God, I hope 4 those girls died on impact. Never knowing what hit them. I can honestly say, having sene that wreckage, they must have.

Sadness as a husband and father. This man will now have to explain to his only living son, what happened to his mother and his sisters one day. Not to mention the aunts and uncles of the nieces she also killed.

If anyone from these shattered families do read this, you have my deepest sympathy . Its little help but try to take some solace in the fact that hundreds, and I mean hundreds of people ran to help as best they could. It was utter chaos, but these people had the instinct and bravery to jump out of theyre cars, and run to a burning car to pull everyone out. They did the best they could with the little they had. It was truly inspiring......

I will NEVER get the image of those little blue shorts, and legs out of my head......I don't have some big message to end on or a moral of any kind. I'm simply getting what I saw off my chest, though it will be with me for the rest of my life.

Thanks for listening.

Peace

The Alcoholic Child's Story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/25/the-alcoholic-childs-story

The alcoholic child's story

The Guardian, Saturday 25 July 2009

"I got my first taste of alcohol when I was a tot – my mum used to give me whisky in warm milk to help me sleep. She was a big drinker, a binge drinker. At the age of 11 I had my first proper drink. I found a bottle of advocat in the bathroom cupboard, and I had some. I was incredibly ill, but I guess I must have liked the sensation because after that, I went on looking for more.

"I had a difficult childhood. My mum was on her own, but then when I was nine she remarried. It was an abusive relationship and I was abused, too. I desperately wanted to be normal and to cope, despite everything that was happening to me. Alcohol helped. I'd steal money from my mum's purse, and borrow from friends, to buy booze.

"At 15, I remember thinking for the first time that I really needed a drink. I was up against it and alcohol calmed me. I felt I couldn't get through the day without it. I remember searching for 10ps down the sofa so I could buy sherry. And I turned to spirits, because I got my hit faster.

"After school I got a job in a department store, but I was coming in with a hangover then drinking at work, so I got sacked. I've had jobs since, but I've often only barely managed to function.

"Eventually I got so bad that I'd be sleeping in pubs, not cleaning my teeth, plastering make-up on over make-up I'd put on yesterday … I was going downhill fast. I'd tried Alcoholics Anonymous before, and at 31 I tried it again. It was a struggle but it's now eight years since I had a drink. The legacy of my drinking years is that I've got a terrible memory and nerve damage in one hand, but it could be so much worse.

"I've gone back to university now, and it's strange being with all these young people who drink themselves silly. Sometimes I wonder if I should say something, but I never do. People have to make their own mistakes. The trouble is when you drink you're only thinking of now, never the long term."

"Sarah" is a pseudonym

What Drives a Child to Drink?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/jul/25/gary-reinbach-alcoholic-madeline-hanshaw

What drives a child to drink?

By the time Madeline Hanshaw's son Gary Reinbach was 13 he was drinking heavily. This week, aged just 22, he died of liver failure. Here, she defends herself – and her son's memory – against those who have been quick to pass judgment

Joanna Moorhead The Guardian, Saturday 25 July 2009

Madeleine Hanshaw, with sons Luke and Tyler, said she hopes Gary's story will be a lesson to others. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi

Madeline Hanshaw is standing in her kitchen. The washing is whirling around the machine, there are coffee cups in the sink, and outside kids are playing noisily in the sunshine. It could be an ordinary day: but Hanshaw is wondering how life will ever be ordinary again. "My baby is dead," she says. "That's going to be in my heart every day for the rest of my life."

Hanshaw, 44, is crying now. A week ago, she is saying, she still hoped that Gary – "Gal", she calls him – would pull through. "I believed in the doctors," she says. "I thought they'd find a liver for him somehow. I thought he'd make it."

Gary Reinbach was denied a transplant because, under guidelines drawn up by the Liver Advisory Group, patients who are likely to return to a damaging pattern of alcohol consumption aren't deemed suitable candidates.

So Gal didn't make it: last Sunday, a day after Hanshaw had gone public with her plea to doctors to make a liver available to him, her 22-year-old alcoholic son died at London's University College hospital (UCH). His last hours, she says, were truly terrible. "He didn't want to die. He kept saying that. I really think that if they'd given him a second chance, he'd have changed his ways.



Gary Reinbach had shown promise as a young boy. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi

"He was talking about going back to college, training, making a new life for himself." She pauses. "That isn't going to happen now."

Talking to Hanshaw you get the feeling that – though Gary was desperately ill in hospital for 10 weeks before he died – neither she, nor he, believed it would come to this. She still seems unable to believe that drink could have made his liver pack up while he was so young. She is adamant she didn't realise he was drinking at 13 – "don't you think I'd have done something about it if I'd known?" – and says that, when she did realise he was drinking heavily from the age of about 16, she did all she could to persuade him to stop. "But he was a young lad, and what young lad listens to his mum? I thought it was just a phase. I thought he'd come to his senses, stop drinking and move on."

What neither she nor Gary was prepared for was the suddenness, and severity, of liver failure. "One moment he was just a heavy drinker, the next he was losing weight and being sick every morning. Then one day I noticed a yellow tint in his eyes, and I told him to get to the doctor." He did – and a few days later he was in hospital, first at Queen's hospital near his home in Dagenham, Essex, then at UCH. "By then he knew it was bad, but he still thought he could get through. He was asking me to call Alcoholics Anonymous so he could start to turn his life around," says Hanshaw.

As she shows me the death certificate – Gary died, it says, of "multi-organ failure" caused by "alcoholic hepatitis" – one of Hanshaw's two younger sons, Luke, 18, arrives. Luke, too, says he never for a second thought Gary would die. "Everyone round here is shocked," he says. "What I keep asking myself is, how come alcohol isn't illegal, when it killed my brother?

"My mates used to drink, but they're not drinking now. They've had enough – no one else wants to die like Gary died."

What Luke and his mates have discovered the hard way is what liver specialists like Dr Nick Sheron, of Southampton General hospital, have been saying for some time: that young people who abuse alcohol heavily will suffer the same consequences that older people who've been abusing it for many years do; in other words, their livers will fail.

"I became a liver specialist 15 years ago, and I remember how shocked I was when I first saw a man of 23 with liver failure. But this year already I've seen five people with it in their early 20s. Gary isn't going to be the last death. We're going to see a lot more young people in this state over the next few years.

"The mistake people are making is to think this problem can't get much worse. It can. We're already seeing heavier drinking in very young people and that can lead, as it did in the case of Gary Reinbach, to early liver failure."

But Sheron says even he is shocked by figures out this week which show that, among 11-15-year-olds who drink (ie, who have had alcohol in the past week), consumption has gone up from 5.3 units a week in 1990 to 12.7 in 2007 and 14.6 last year – an almost threefold increase in consumption in under two decades.

"We're aware of a trend towards greater consumption in youngsters who drink," he says. "It escalates – what you see is someone who starts having alcohol in their early teens, and then they start to drink more and more on more and more days of the week. It starts with the weekend binge, and then it spreads to Thursday nights and then Wednesday nights. And then they're drinking heavily on a daily basis – a recipe for liver disease."

From talking to Hanshaw, that seems very much to have been how Gary's drinking progressed. But the big question is, why? What makes a child who's doing reasonably well (Hanshaw says her boy more than held his own at primary school, though his secondary school career was inevitably blighted by his alcohol use) descend into an alcoholic daze?

Inevitably, there isn't one single reason: as Sheron points out, the reasons for alcohol misuse are always multifactorial. But availability is crucial: what a lot of people don't realise, says Sheron, is how much easier it is for kids today to not only get their hands on alcohol, but to get their hands on stronger alcohol. "Compared with 1980, beer is 170% more affordable," he says. "But wine is 280% more affordable … and spirits are 350% more affordable. It's not just that it's got cheaper: the strongest stuff has got more affordable than the weaker stuff."

So how did Gary, who reportedly got through three bottles of vodka a day at the height of his addiction, get his alcohol? "What happens is that an older kid buys them their first booze or they get it from girls who've got adult men to buy it for them," says Hanshaw. "Then they get a taste for it, and they're away – and they find ways to get it, of course they do."

But availability is only part of the jigsaw: drinking yourself into a daily stupor requires a fairly heavy dissatisfaction with life as well. Hanshaw says Gary was bored – "there's nothing for them to do round here, I think he drank to help him get through the boredom". But she feels, too, that he was deeply affected by her marriage break-up when he was 11, and that alcohol provided some solace. "I think the fact that his dad and I broke up had a lot to do with it," she says. "But then again, plenty of kids have parents that break up." She also points to the fact that Gary was a hot shot at tae kwon do, and might even have become one of the youngest black belts in the country.

"But when we split up we moved away from where the classes were held, and it was too difficult for him to get to them. I think that was a big disappointment, yes: when we had arguments, he'd always throw that one back at me."

It's pretty heartbreaking, this idea of an 11-year-old lad suddenly wrenched from the life he knew and deposited in this ground-floor flat on a rundown estate, his dream stolen from him and the world suddenly seeming to offer only disappointment.

Hanshaw says she feels both she and her dead son have been unjustly vilified in the press over the last few days. For the first time during our chat, there is an edge of anger in her voice. "I know people are blaming me and I know people are blaming him, but what I say is – you don't know me, and you didn't know my son. I did my best for him, just like any other mother. Yes, his dad and I split up, but we're still friends, he's been down here this week. It wasn't the worst break-up."

One of the things that has hurt her most has been that some people have said that it was right that her son wasn't deemed eligible for the liver transplant that might have saved his life. "I've heard people have said that reading about Gal makes them feel like ripping up their donor cards. Well, rip them up! We wouldn't want a liver from anyone like them anyway." She pauses.

"At the end of the day, I'm just a mum who was trying to keep her child alive. You'd do anything … I'd do anything …"

She had heard that a transplant would have given Gary a 75% chance of recovery. She did all she could for him in what turned out to be his final weeks. "I was at the hospital every day."

Now, she says, she'd just like other mothers, and other young people like Gary, to know the reality of heavy drinking. "If they could have seen my Gary lying there, so ill and so swollen … if they could have heard how much he wanted to live. If I'd known then what I know now I'd have done something, anything, to stop him drinking but I didn't know it could turn out this bad. And I didn't know how to stop it."

How to stop young alcoholism is the $64,000 question: and according to Sheron the answer, like the problem, is multifactorial. "There isn't one single reason for it, and there isn't one single solution to it," he says.

One thing he will be pinned down on is cheap alcohol marketed directly at young people. "We've got to look at the fact that there are almost no controls on this," he says. "It's being pushed through the internet, through mobile phones, through all channels."

But for Gary Reinbach, there was to be no second chance. "I'm not saying he was the perfect son," says his mother. "But I'll tell you this: he didn't deserve to die like that, at 22. No one does. And I hope to goodness others learn from it, because I don't want any other mother to go through what I'm going through."

The Paramedic's Story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jul/25/alcohol-the-paramedics-story

The paramedic's story

The Guardian, Saturday 25 July 2009

Steve Evans has been a paramedic for 38 years with the North West Ambulance Service.


"I remember the moment I realised what a big problem underage drinking had become. It was a Friday night in Widnes and we were called out to two 11-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl who were unconscious due to alcohol.

"If they'd all been at the same party it wouldn't have been so bad, but what frightened me was that they were all from different callouts. One had nicked the alcohol, another had got an older brother to buy it, the third had bought it from a white-van man who'd gone to France, stacked up his car with vodka, and didn't care who he sold it to.

"That was bad enough … and then, a few weeks later, I was called out to a 12-year-old lad who was unconscious in a field all on his own. Fortunately, a woman out walking her dog saw him and called for an ambulance, or he'd probably have choked on his own vomit or died of hypothermia.

"It made me realise that the problem is out of control and that kids aren't equipped for helping one another when the worst happens. So I decided to set up a campaign called Don't Walk Away. We publish posters and we put them up in places where kids will see them, and what we're telling them is not to abandon a friend who collapses because of drinking too much. What we say is: your intervention could save your mate's life.

"Alcohol abuse in the very young is a timebomb, and it's starting to go off. Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool runs an alcohol referral unit, and has children of 10 among its patients!

"I've got a 13-year-old son. How will I stop him drinking? Well, I don't drink myself and that's important in terms of role-modelling.

"But beyond that, I just want to demystify alcohol. I want him to realise that it can wreck your life, and I definitely don't want it to wreck his."




Advice from Paramedic Steve Evans of the NORTHWEST AMBULANCE SERVICE (NHS) (UK)

When Things Go Wrong

Sometimes a drinking session gets out of hand. Young people can become intoxicated quite quickly, even to the point of slipping into unconsciousness. Their friends may feel frightened about the situation, but there are some basic steps you should take.

Here is some first aid advice for young people. Steve says:-

1. Don't panic, the Ambulance Service is there to help you in this situation.

2. Clear the casualty's airway of vomit by finger sweeping if necessary.

3. Make sure the casualty is breathing by looking, listening and feeling for movement of the chest or abdomen, if they are not breathing then you need to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

4. If the casualty is breathing then you need to clear the area of broken glass so that you do not roll them on to it.

5. Having done this you need to roll the casualty into the recovery position, that is on to their side so that they can still breathe. If you roll them right over then they will not be able to breathe properly, as their own body weight will stop them from breathing.

6. This is the time to send or phone for the Ambulance by dialling 999, giving the exact location of the casualty. It will help the Ambulance crew if you send somebody to meet them and guide them to the casualty.

7. You should try and keep the casualty warm as a side effect of too much alcohol is hypothermia.

8. Keep checking that the casualty has a clear airway and is still breathing properly until the Ambulance arrives.

By following these simple steps you may save the life of a friend. Do not worry about getting into trouble by getting involved, because we are more interested in saving lives than telling people off.

Kirin Beer's Surprise Hit Product: Alcohol-free Beer...

WHAT THE HELL IS A BEER AD DOING ON A BLOG LIKE THIS?

Aside from uncomfortable psychological triggers, another reason why most former drinkers generally don't like to discuss "alcohol-free" beer is that it's not really free of alcohol. Surprised? In the US, "non-alcoholic" is defined as anything with less than 0.5% ABV and in the UK, "no alcohol/alcohol free" is defined as not more than 0.05% ABV. That's definitely NOT "non-alcoholic" in most people's books.

We now have a case with 0.00% alcohol-free beer having less alcohol than a glass of orange juice...which often has small negligible amounts of naturally-occurring alcohol.

Many inside Japanese brewing company, Kirin, were actually very skeptical that such a product would have any future in a country like Japan, where drinking alcoholic beverages seems very ingrained into the culture. So, they were taken aback when sales soared and they actually sold out of product.

This is probably not a good product recommendation for any recovering alcoholic who is not yet 100% comfortable in their sobriety especially if the taste of beer might provide a psychological trigger for relapse.

Those who think they might have a drinking problem and want to take a stab at controlled drinking and/or moderation, might find this useful however.


http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE53M1HB20090423

Alcohol-free brew surprise hit in beer-loving Japan
Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:01pm EDT
By Taiga Uranaka

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Japanese thirsting for a beer, but not the buzz, are quaffing an alcohol-free brew that is a first in a country with a strong drinking tradition.

There are many beers on the market from all over the world that are labeled as non-alcoholic, but brewer Kirin Holdings, which makes "Kirin Free," claims its brew is the only one with 0.00 percent alcohol.

In Japan, alcoholic drinks are defined as those that are 1 percent or more proof. "Those drinks, albeit in very small amounts, contain alcohol," said Kirin spokesman Kuniaki Tamai, referring to the drink's competitors. "Restaurants and shops had not been able to loudly tout them as non-alcoholic drinks either."

Non-alcoholic beer is a niche product in Japan, home to several brewers such as Asahi and Sapporo whose drinks are as popular at home as abroad. Japanese businessmen and executives regularly go out for drinks after work, and beer has long been one of the country's most popular alcoholic drinks.
But Kirin, one of Japan's biggest brewers, said demand for its drink, which it advertises as a soda with a beer-like taste, has been overwhelming.

Earlier this week, it ran adverts in newspaper apologizing for the shortage of "Kirin Free" due to stouter-than-expected demand.

Kirin said demand was especially strong among drivers and pregnant women who did not want to take in alcohol. A few years ago, the government introduced stiffer penalties for drunk driving.

"We are hearing from pregnant customers who say they like it because it has no alcohol content," said Kirin's Tamai.

A 350ml can of Kirin Free costs around 150 yen ($1.5), while regular beer is priced at about 220 yen ($2.2).

The popularity of the new product is a rare bright spot for Japan's beer industry, which faces sober reality at its main market. The country's beer market shrank by 15 percent in volume in the past decade amid aging demography and diversifying taste. ($1=98.30 Yen)

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Craig Ferguson Speaks from the Heart

The Late Late Show host, Craig Ferguson speaks on his past problems as an alcoholic...

(the total video is 12 minutes... give him about 4 minutes until the serious part of his monologue kicks in - it'll be worth it. Guaranteed.)





To get a free (legal) online copy of the AA "Big Book", go to this post.

Alcoholics Anonymous BIG BOOK (The Anonymous Press PDF Edition)

Before reading the post below, first, take a look at the excellent Youtube monologue by The Late Late Show host, Craig Ferguson:

http://sobermd.blogspot.com/2009/07/craig-ferguson-speaks-from-heart.html

"A recovering alcoholic, Ferguson has been sober since February 18, 1992. He said he had considered committing suicide on Christmas Day 1991, but when offered a drink by a friend, Tommy the Irishman, for celebrating the holiday, he forgot to jump off Tower Bridge in London as he had planned."

I promise that it won't be a waste of your time....
(The video is about 12 minutes ... give it about 4 minutes until he starts getting into the serious part of the monologue)

Alcoholics Anonymous BIG BOOK
(The Anonymous Press PDF Edition)

For many people, one of the first organizations they turn to advice when they are deciding whether to quit drinking is Alcoholic Anonymous (AA). The "Big Book" as it is known contains the stories of recovery gathered from all types of alcoholics.

If you think you have a drinking problem and would like to learn more about AA, this is the next best solution to attending a meeting: read the book...

Alcoholics Anonymous BIG BOOK (The Anonymous Press PDF Edition): The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism -