This is How to Japanese, a monthly newsletter with something about Japan/Japanese and a dash of いろいろ.
日本・日本語: 角ハイ
角ハイ (kaku-hai) is a word you may have encountered on menus in Japan. Given my Rip Van Winkle-esque experience living here (2005-2010, and now 2022 onward), 角ハイ has only recently become familiar to me, although the word itself came into prevalence around 2008-2010:
角瓶 (kakubin) has been around longer, but it has similar Google Trends data:
What are 角ハイ and 角瓶? The latter is Suntory’s flagship blended whiskey, which began its life as サントリーウヰスキー12年 (Suntory Whisky 12 Year) but took on the popular—and later officially trademarked (PDF)—name 角瓶 because of its unique 亀甲模様 (kikkō moyō, hexagonal pattern) glass bottle, more casually referred to as 角型 (kakugata, square/oblong/rectangle shape) or 角ばった (kakubatta, to be square/angular/jagged). Consumers took this kanji 角 (kaku, angle/angular) and combined it with 瓶 (bin, bottle) to create a new compound, which Suntory was able to co-opt.
Or so goes the story. The questions I am unable to answer at this point in my shallow dive into Japanese whiskey history are “What was the first product referred to as 角瓶?” and “When was the 角瓶 bottle first produced?” The 角瓶 that exists today originated in 1937, but there does seem to be a different whiskey sold in 1932 called サントリー十年ウヰスキー 角瓶 (Suntory 10 Year Whiskey Kakubin). So if 角瓶 was actually a word that bubbled up from drinkers, then there had to have been a product pre-existing that…or so one would think.
Speaking of bubbling up…the story is clearer for 角ハイ, but its boom required Suntory to weather the vicissitudes of the whiskey market over several decades. 角瓶 had to gain popularity as a whiskey balanced for Japanese tastes, be designated a 海軍指定品 (kaigun shitei-hin, Navy specified good) during the war, and go on to become the best selling whiskey in Japan. Then the whiskey market had to slowly decline as demographics, economics, and tastes changed in Japan. Whiskey got a regulatory boost in 1989 when tax laws were adjusted to bring spirits of all strengths under the same tax rate, dropping prices, but despite this price stimulus, the percentage of people who had drunk whiskey in the past year fell from 70% to below 40% in Japan in the 10 years from 1998 to 2008.
Enter 角ハイ, which at this point you might have already figured out is a combination of 角瓶 and ハイボール (haibōru, highball). In 2008, Suntory began a marketing campaign that would make 角瓶 what one writer has called a 救世酒 (kyūsei-shu, literally “savior liquor”) for the second time. The first time was in 1937 when it was first released and provided a less intense alternative to the smokey, peaty Scotch-influenced options on the market. This second time, Suntory looked for a way to overcome whiskey’s staid, high-proof image. They also had to beat back beer’s stranglehold on the “first drink” market in Japan, which is best demonstrated by the ubiquitous phrase とりあえず生 (toriaezu nama, “beer for now”).
Suntory nailed it with the decision to promote hyper-carbonated highballs, deploying highball dispensers set at Champagne pressure to bars such as 立呑みマルギン (Tachinomi Marugin) in Ginza. They also created a set of commercials with actress Koyuki, which are instructional and aspirational. They both give viewers permission to order a highball when they’re out and demonstrate how easy it is to make one at home: Just pour a half-inch of whiskey and top it off with soda water.
You can see the language quite plainly in the campaign:
夜は、ハイボールからはじまる
The night starts with highballs.
とりあえず、ハイボール
Highball, for now.
This set of commercials was later updated with other actresses taking over the “Madonna” position, with interest seeming to spike somewhat in 2014 with Igawa Haruka’s ascension to the highball throne.
角ハイ was off to the races. In 2010, Suntory had to adjust the sales volume of their whiskey because they couldn’t keep up with highball demand. As the Google Trends data shows, there’s no signs of it letting up. It’s as if Brown-Forman had invented the term “Jack and Coke” as part of a marketing campaign. That’s how powerful it seems to be. It helped to revitalize the whiskey market in Japan and seems to have preceded the intense international interest in the Japanese whiskey market, which began driving up prices sharply from 2010-2015. It singlehandedly boosted interest in the word ハイボール:
And this seems to parallel interest in the U.S. to a certain extent:
I’ll end with another Rip Van Winkle observation. Diluting liquor with something to make it more palatable is not a new concept for Japan. お湯割り (oyuwari, cut with hot water) has been a popular way to drink 焼酎 (shōchū) since the late-1970s. 酎ハイ (chūhai, shōchū highballs) have been on menus at izakaya for a long time and sold in cans at konbini since 1984. When I first arrived on an internship in Okayama organized by the Rotary Club there in 2002, the members used still water and the term 水割り (mizuwari, cut with water). Bars had ボトルキープ (botoru kīpu, literally “bottle keep”), a service that allows regular patrons to purchase a full bottle of liquor from an establishment and keep it there for future visits.
But consumer tastes are amorphous and ever-shifting, and beverage companies in Japan—like those everywhere—will continue to chase each other like the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Suntory momentarily captured something with 角ハイ, creating a noticeable change in the landscape that predates not only the international whiskey craze but also the U.S. sparkling water and alcoholic seltzer boom, which kicked off around 2015. It will be interesting to see where things go next.
いろいろ
We have a publication date. The English translation of The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Philip Gabriel will be published on November 26, 2024. There’s also a cover for the English edition.
I have nothing else to say about this topic except to note that it appears that the publication date for Jay Rubin’s translation of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was delayed until December 10, 2024, which pushes it back after this new novel. It seems like the publishers and Murakami finally sat down and hashed out a publication plan that works. From the point of view of the average English reader, it would be strange to put out a new translation of an old novel and then two months later publish a new book with a very closely related story. It makes way more sense for the new novel to go first and then to follow up with an updated version of the old novel. But it’s very curious to know that at some point, Hard-boiled Wonderland was scheduled for September.
Check out the blog this month for further Google Trends examination, including a close look at the most interesting data I found, which was for お湯割り.
I’ve been meaning to mention this here for a while, but if you’re not making cornbread in your rice cooker, you’re not using it to its full potential. The hardest part is getting the corn meal, which is available on Amazon or at shops like Tomizawa (Tomiz for short). I usually do some sort of combination of this recipe with a Japanese one like this recipe. Just use the cake setting, and let ‘er rip. This reminds me that if you need baking soda in Japan, it might be easier to find at a pharmacy, but you have to ask for the kind that you can cook with.
As a fellow RVW who went back to US from 2008-2019, when I came back I was blown away by the prevalence of highballs in Japanese nightlife. They are a great alternative to beer!
They had kana for "wi"... Maybe they can make it un-obsolete? :)