http://www.desnews.com:80/wir/wg0miw1y.htm

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>           Japanese drinking habits taking their toll on society
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>           Last updated 07/13/1998, 10:30 a.m. MT
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>           By Joji Sakurai
>           Associated Press writer
>
>                 TOKYO — In the intricate knot of alleyways behind
> Tokyo's Shimbashi train station, businessmen stagger out of
> dilapidated bars with names like The Soul of Drunkenness and Oblivion.
> Neon casts an eerie light on one man bent double, retching, in the
> middle of t
>                 That Japan likes a drink is clear to any pedestrian
> out after dark.
>                 But the country's drinking habits may be more serious
> than society is willing to admit, if the growing health and economic
> costs of its love affair with the bottle are i
>                 "Japan takes an extremely indulgent attitude toward
> alcohol abuse," says Hideo Hosaki, a professor of medicine at Tokyo's
> prestigious Keio Univ
>                 Amid a worldwide trend of falling alcohol intake,
> Japan was the only leading industrialized country to see per capita
> consumption steadily rise over the '70s and '80s, the Health and
> Welfare Ministry reporte
>                 The ministry hasn't compiled more recent statistics,
> but figures from other sources indicate consumption may be stabilizing
> at the higher level
>                 Japan's average alcohol consumption is roughly equal
> to the United States at 1.74 gallons a year per person, according to
> government statistics
>                 But officials say that figure is cause for particular
> concern in this country because studies indicate nearly half of all
> Japanese lack an enzyme essential to breaking down alcohol in the body
> and thus suffer more damage fr
>                 The economic impact of alcohol abuse is heavy.
>                 Measured in terms of efficiency, medical fees,
> accidents and absenteeism, the cost is more than $60 billion a year,
> the health ministry estimates. About 17 percent of people hospitalized
> in Japan suffer from alcohol-related
>                 Japanese society has long tolerated — even encouraged
> — public displays of inebriation.
>                 Buying a beer is as easy as slipping a coin into one
> of the ubiquitous alcohol vending machines clustered in residential
> areas across the count
>                 "Drinking heavily on a daily basis isn't seen as a
> problem until it's too late," says Tsukasa Mizusawa, a spokesman for
> ASK, a citizen awareness group on alco
>                 While private clinics and Alcoholics Anonymous are
> slowly gaining a foothold, alcoholism usually isn't diagnosed until
> the drinker develops severe mental disorders or a life-threatenin
>                 "There are very few doctors with the expertise to
> treat alcoholism," says Hosaki, the medical professor. "Most doctors
> completely ignore the problems alcoholism can cause in the family and
> in