Her name may conjure images of boozy cherry blossom parties, but Hanami Ohashi hardly drinks.
The 25-year-old hairstylist in Daikanyama, a fashionable Tokyo neighborhood of boutiques and restaurants, says she’ll have one alcoholic drink a week at most. “If I’m meeting friends, I might have a beer — just one. More often, we end up at a cafe.”
Ohashi is not unusual in passing on a second round. She belongs to a generation drinking far less than their parents did, swept up in what’s been dubbed the “sober curious” movement. National surveys show that around 60% of people in their 20s consume little to no alcohol, a shift driven by heightened awareness of health risks, anxieties over the future after decades of economic stagnation, and an explosion in cheap, digital entertainment options like gaming, streaming services and social media.
AloJapan.com