Organizers worried about beer shortage at Rugby World Cup

May 5, 2019

Tokyo--The organizing committee of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan is calling on business operators in game host cities to pay attention to securing sufficient beer in preparation for the arrival of beer-guzzling fans from abroad.

On the occasions of past World Cup matches, many restaurants and bars ran out of beer, the organizers said.

In the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, beer consumption at game venues was more than six times the amount consumed at the times of soccer games at the same venues, according to the committee.

Total beer consumption during the last quadrennial event stood at 1.9 million liters, including at public viewing sites. Of the total, 1.3 million liters was consumed at game venues.

More than 400,000 foreigners are forecast to visit Japan during the coming World Cup, which will start in September.

The organizing committee has held briefing sessions in the cities of Sapporo, Hokkaido, and Oita, which are expected to receive visits by particularly large numbers of foreigners among 12 host cities.

The committee warned restaurant and hotel operators that running out of beer would cost them lucrative business opportunities and could prompt bad publicity to be spread on social media.

An official of Oita Prefecture said, "After explanations by the organizing committee, not only restaurants but also wholesalers took it (the issue of beer shortages) as a realistic problem."

The prefectural government has asked four major beer brewers to strengthen the beer supply system, according to the official.

It has also called on restaurants and bars to extend business hours so that visitors to Japan can enjoy drinking beer after games and cautioned all-you-can-drink restaurants and bars against running out of stock.

"We hope they (restaurants and bars) will pump up the event while taking care to ensure enough beer is in supply during the event," the official said. Jiji Press