This Year’s Trend in Japan is 1% Alcoholic Drinks for Some Godforsaken Reason

A week or so ago, I noticed that Kirin was running weird commercials advertising a new drink called Butterfly (バタフライ), which contains 1% alcohol.

The flavors of Butterfly available are “Take It Easy! Apple” (気楽にいこう！アップル/Kiraku ni ikou! Apple), “Let’s Go! Ginger” (ゆけ、ゆけ！ジンジャー/Yuke, yuke! Ginger), and “Happy-Go-Lucky Tea” (のんきに紅茶/Nonki ni koucha). They sound good, but unfortunately I can’t sample them, because they’re full of artificial sweeteners, which I am allergic to.

While I was wondering what kind of people would drink 1% alcoholic beverages (lightweights, I guess), I noticed that Suntory also had its own 1% alcohol, “The O.N.E.,” with commercials starring Lily Franky (リリー・フランキー) and Kiko Mizuhara (水原希子):

Does two make a trend?

By the way, The O.N.E. doesn’t have artificial sweeteners, so I could drink it, but the only flavors available are lemon (レモン) and grapefruit (グレープフルーツ), which are pretty standard, so it doesn’t seem worth it to drink them for only 1% of drunk.

But if you’re someone who usually can’t handle the booze, you might want to check these out.