Alcohol has long been seen as a social lubricant for thousands of years in Japan, where business deals and difficult issues are discussed over bottles of beer and sake.
It is believed that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment for such discussions.
This is such an odd bit of “cultural context” to include in the article. Alcohol is a social lubricant in basically every culture that doesn’t outright forbid it.
I think it’s to a whole different degree in Japan though, at least from what I’ve heard. Forced drinking parties at work, for example.
It’s always funny to watch drunk men in suit trying to stumble to the train station on a Friday night in Japan.
So the more comfortable way to lose a license is to drive a car instead?
If you punish everything you’ll just get people who stop caring.
Not really, same in Germany if you are generally drunk in traffic (except by foot or public transport, i.e. an active participant) the same sober laws apply. So the incentive is not to do that when drunk. Also believe me when you lose your driving license completely you will care if you need it, and even if you don’t, fines hurt, too.
Japan is even harsher as you can go to prison directly, and if you are in their court system once (that is after only a fine or simple suspension) due to customs and cultural norms you will be found guilty with a chance of about 99 % (the Japanese court system is notoriously bad).
Alternatives to escalating by using a car can bet walking or taking the metro, the latter is easily possible in Japan, for instance. When the trains don’t run there are plenty cheap manga cafes or capsule hotels.
This is something that happens in beach cities in CA. People get drunk at the beach bars and then take the beach bike path home. However, those paths are used by pedestrians and other cyclists going at high speeds.
Drunk cyclist: oh no! what will I do for transportation now?
DC: wait
*Drunk cycling
You can edit titles OP.
Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English)
Yours is an incorrect correction.
