Edamame, literally meaning “twig bean”, is a nutritional and flavoursome green soybean that is grown mainly to harvest its young green-shelled beans. As a snack the edamame seedpods, which encase multiple beans, are lightly boiled in salted water and served whole. When eaten the beans are extracted by placing the seedpod in your mouth and using your teeth to strip the soybeans from the seedpods. The traditional setting for consumption of edamame is as a snack with beer in an izakaya.

Image source: Niigata Syoku

Each year in Japan major brewers of beer select a Beer Campaign Girl who are supposed to reflect the image of the beer. Advertising beer in Japan, it seems, must follow the fundamental marketing requirement – the 3 b’s – Beers, Bikinis and Beaches.

In the spirit of the Hot Fun In the Summertime! Japan Blog Matsuri hosted by our main man Locohama following is a top 15 collection of bikini-clad Beer Campaign Girl’s from various breweries over the years. Kanpai!

1. Minami Otomo 「大友みなみ」

Minami Otomo is the 2004 Sapporo Beer Campaign Girl. You can see my reflection just under the beer.

2. Haruka Igawa 「井川遥」

Haruka Igawa is the 2000 Asahi Super Dry Beer Campaign Girl.

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Have no friends? Feeling sorry for yourself? Emotionally vulnerable? Never fear! The Japanese brewery Orion have come to the rescue with “Zero Life” – depression in a can.

Orion puts great emphasis on recycling all its waste, producing “zero elimination”. Hence, the marketing intention of “Zero Life” was probably to promote a lifestyle beer produced with zero waste. Instead, what they ended up with was a ‘you have no life you loser so you better start drowning your sorrows’ beer.

Orion is the 5th largest beer brewery in Japan and is headquartered in Okinawa. Although it only has around a 1% market share of the Japanese beer market it controls over 50% of the beer market on Okinawa.

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