Drunk in Society

This chapter focuses on the role of intoxication in society. After examining the way courts discuss alcohol use as a social problem, it turns to three legal contexts: employment law, family law, and torts. First, it examines cases of disciplinary dismissals, in which civil servants whose employment is terminated after drunk-driving convictions sue their former employers. Second, it explores divorce cases in which alcohol consumption and intoxication are raised as factors that contributed to the demise of the marriage. Third, it turns to cases in which people claim they were defamed by statements related to alcohol consumption. In each case, courts issue opinions that either offer little insight into their thoughts on intoxication (despite a penchant for editorializing in other types of cases) or apply uneven, but individualized, justice.

Drunk Others

This chapter explores the responsibilities of sober people for intoxicated people. It first explores general duties created by relationships and employment law. It then examines responsibilities in two specific contexts: university tragedies in which students, often because of peer pressure, die from alcohol poisoning, and insurance cases in which intoxicated people or their heirs sue their insurers for damages incurred while drunk. In general, absent extreme circumstances, courts place liability with the intoxicated and not people around them. Although some of these outcomes might be attributable to specific legal doctrines or facts, the cases nevertheless stand in contrast with social science literature that finds that people in Japan tend to place responsibility for behavior with groups and circumstances, not individuals.

Drunk Driving

Japanese drunk driving laws are among the strictest in the world and are stricter than those of any U.S. state. Yet despite considerable drinking in Japan, drunk driving arrests and prosecutions are relatively rare. When cases reach the courtroom, Japanese judges apply an extraordinary range of tests to determine liability. Sometimes they rely on blood alcohol or breath alcohol results, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they rely on subjective observations of intoxication, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they rely on factors unrelated to drinking or driving to determine liability both for drivers and for passengers alike.

Conclusion: One for the Road

The conclusion begins with a final case, in which an intoxicated salaryman is run over by a train, as an example of the degree to which cases have both common themes and individual-specific characteristics. In this case the deceased’s heirs sue the railway company for wrongful death, and the railway company countersues for damages incurred in cleaning up the tracks. The court finds no liability for the railway and orders the deceased’s heirs to pay a portion—but not all—of the costs of cleanup. Along the way the court provides such detail that the deceased emerges as a recognizable individual who drank in familiarly patterned ways. The book concludes by analyzing its key findings, focusing on the rich description of alcohol in Japanese society created by courts and their ability to bring individuals to life in their narratives.

Punishing the Drunk

This chapter explores the Japanese criminal sentencing system both in general and in the context of crimes committed while intoxicated. Sentencing in Japan is based on a “market price” system in which courts usually pronounce sentences that are slightly lower than those requested by prosecutors. In most criminal cases, courts then construct a narrative to explain the sentence. The narrative often takes into account factors like remorse, apology, settlement with the victim, and impact on society. In criminal cases involving intoxicated defendants, courts additionally rely on two specific factors: oaths to stop drinking and the support of others, particularly family members.

Drunk Crimes

Japanese law categorizes intoxication as a form of insanity. It then further categorizes intoxication, using the methodology of Hans Binder, into three types: pathological, complex, and simple. Punishment in criminal cases depends on which type of intoxication an individual experiences: pathological intoxication results in a not guilty verdict; complex intoxication results in a reduction of sentence; and simple intoxication results in no reduction of sentence. Categorization is often determined by psychiatric tests, which can involve drinking tests, in which defendants, while in custody awaiting trial, drink alcohol in large quantities while an expert observes and records their behavior. Sometimes courts rely heavily on these tests, and sometimes courts completely ignore them and instead substitute their own notions of what factors constitute intoxication. In either case, courts provide extraordinarily individualized justice.

How to Drink in Japan

This chapter uses Japanese court opinions and other sources to explore the broad contours of alcohol in Japanese society: the what, where, and why of drinking in Japan. The what examines the primary kinds of alcohol consumed in Japan (sake, shochu, and beer), the cultural significance of those drinks and others, and the correlations certain drinks have with certain activities. The where examines social drinking practices at establishments like izakaya, snacks (sunakku), and host clubs as well as at-home drinking norms like drinking with dinner (banshaku) and nightcaps (nezake). The why explores motivations for drinking, including work-related drinking patterns and drinking as stress relief.

Drinker’s Paradise?

This chapter offers an overview of the book and introduces the book’s methodology through a 1956 case of attempted murder in which the defendant was found not guilty because he was intoxicated. The court’s opinion begins with many specific facts that help readers understand the characters and the outcome of the case and ends by editorializing about the dangers of Japan’s emergence as a “drinker’s paradise.” Using this opinion as an example, the chapter sets forth the goals of the book: to use law to create a rich description of the role of alcohol in Japan and to use the alcohol-related cases to challenge traditional depictions of the Japanese legal system as one that provides systematic and routinized justice. It closes with a brief description of Japanese judges and their role in the judicial system.