Japan's Tax Agency Finally Retires Its Ancient Health Advice
Until last April, Japan's tax agency was officially promoting the 2,000-year-old idea that "alcohol is the best medicine."
So that happened
For years, if you visited the website for Japan's National Tax Agency (NTA), you could find them quoting the old adage, "alcohol is the best medicine." They even threw in some supposed perks like stress relief and better circulation, which is a nice thought.
This helpful passage was finally taken down last April. It seems this only happened after the Cabinet Officeโs Food Safety Commission gave them a formal request, suggesting the NTA wasn't exactly in a rush to update its medical advice.
But why the tax agency?
It does seem a little odd that the government body collecting your taxes is also moonlighting as a wellness guru. The reason, like many things here, is historical. Back in the Meiji Restoration, the government needed cash, and they realized taxing sake was a much more stable income source than farming.
By the turn of the 20th century, booze taxes made up about a third of the nation's entire revenue. The government got so invested that it even created a National Research Institute of Brewing in 1904 to keep the quality high and the money flowing.
After WWII, this whole responsibility of promoting alcohol just got passed down to the NTA. The source article notes this would be like the IRS in America being in charge of running Oktoberfest as part of its official duties. It just is what it is, I guess.
The internet has thoughts
Naturally, people online found the whole thing pretty amusing. Comments on the news included zingers like, "The NTA sounds like an alcoholic," and, "Anyone who calls alcohol medicine sounds like a meth addict."
My personal favorite observation was, "Medicine probably really sucked when that phrase was coined." And they have a point. The saying apparently comes from a Chinese book written about 2,000 years ago, when medical science was, let's say, less rigorous.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if Japan's move away from drinking culture continues. Seems like the government is slowly catching up. ๐ถ