Japanese drinking habits taking their toll on society Last updated 07/13/1998, 10:30 a.m. MT 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 the street.       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 indicators.       "Japan takes an extremely indulgent attitude toward alcohol abuse," says Hideo Hosaki, a professor of medicine at Tokyo's prestigious Keio University.       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 reported in 1992.       The ministry hasn't compiled more recent statistics, but figures from other sources indicate consumption may be stabilizing at the higher levels.       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 from liquor.       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 illnesses.       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 country.       "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 alcohol abuse.       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-threatening disease.       "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 society."