Alcoholism In USA, Japan, And Germany

Every country has its own norms and political systems. These differences can sometimes lead to how it effects the country itself. Some major issues that the world is currently facing is alcoholism and addiction. Since each country is different, alcoholism is influenced based on the country’s advancement, economy, and culture. Furthermore, this can result in the differences the number of population is effected on alcoholism in different country. This research mainly focuses on how alcoholism impacts the population in US, Japan, and Germany.

Nations like the United States, Japan, and Germany are fairly similar countries in a way that they are all fairly advanced. Sinthia Radu partnered up with the BAV group to compose research on the most advanced countries, comparing their technological and overall rank. Standing at first place for technology is Japan. (Radu 11) The USA stands in second place with technology, and Germany ranks fifth. (7-10) Each countries standing on how advanced they are correlated with the rate of alcoholism and addiction. Proven by the data, the rate of alcoholism inversely correlates with the advancement of a nation, as the less advanced a country is, the higher the alcoholism rate it has. This makes sense because a more advanced country is more likely to have better education, thus more people are better educated about the dangers of alcoholism.

Each country has its distinct traits based on culture, and these unique traits give rise to a different lifestyle. Japan is known for its big seafood culture, the USA is known for its diversity, Germany is known for beer, which leads back to alcoholism. Starting with Germany, according to a study done by IOGT International, “alcohol policy is being formulated to protect the interests of the alcohol industry, not to tackle the pervasive harm in the interest of society.” (“Study: Germany”) Germany’s society is attached to its title of being the main beer producer in the world, and that causes their main focus to be on maintaining that big title, rather than acknowledging the problems that arise from it. The second highest alcoholism rate in this comparative essay, USA, has a culture that centers around freedom. Every religion is free to be, every single tone of human skin exists here, and almost all subcultures are open to learning other subcultures, implementing it to their own culture and creating a mix of their own culture. This degree of freedom gives rise to abuse. Many people in the united states make the best use of their human rights to buy and consume alcoholic beverages, and the questioning of usage for those who abuse it will feel more like a threat of their unalienable rights. Thankfully, the rehab community for alcoholism is widely known. Finally, Japan is known for its most valued belief of respect. This ties into the problem of alcoholism, as the Japanese have always seen drinking as a positive thing. The concept of problematic amounts of drinking is a foreign idea, and people still try to impress their peers by drinking as much as they can. According to JapanToday, “Company employees often feel pressured to drink excessively with their superiors or else miss out on promotions.” (Larsen) The differences in the cultures are more of a complex way of looking into this issue and should be used for studies that focus less on the statistics of alcoholism, but more for how awareness should be spread.

The differences in the countries can cause many differences in the percentage of the problems, but countries unite when it comes to fixing them. Alcoholism awareness is one of the many movements that unite countries. The US is known for its advanced programs to help people through rehab, which is the program called AA. They even dedicated an entire month to raise awareness to prevent alcoholism; April is alcohol awareness month, which encourages mindful consumption. (Katie) In Japan, influenced by the idea of AA, they established the association called, Nippon Abstinence Association, also known as, Zen Nihon Danshu Renmei, which also gives rise to the ASK organization. Japan is still known to be resistant to the idea of alcoholism, but the organizations work hard to shed light on the matter. Lastly, Germany, the nation of beer, topping the US and Japan with the alcoholism rate, have started to be more aware of the issues of their cultural heavy drinking. They have recently come up with a slogan as their way of campaigning mindful drinking. This is obviously not to give a picture of their nation’s icon as bad but to notify the people that too much is still bad. This slogan says, “Alkohol? Kenn dein Limit”, which means “Alcohol? Know your limit.” (“Alcohol? Know your Limit”) Each of these countries’ strategy for awareness shows their awareness of how their society works in terms of alcoholism, with the USA’s open mind and freedom, Japan’s toxic society’s glorification of alcohol consumption, and Germany’s beer pride.

As a way of preventing the prevalence of alcoholism, awareness is key, and the best kind of awareness is the one that comes from the foundations of the mind, meaning that one should not just know that alcohol is bad, but also know that not a lot of people know this. As a member of the world, it is important to acknowledge all possible issues no matter how small it is and more importantly, the fact that the problem can be fixed. A person could be ignorant about such a small issue such as the concept of disabilities and end up belittling those who are suffering through those disorders. Informing this person can help them to be more conscious of their actions, and help those who he could have affected. Alcoholism and addiction are no different. For some people, they might say, “they should just stop it because it is harmful to their health.” Little do they know that it is as hard as changing a morning habit of brushing your teeth, which usually comes naturally for a person. Spreading awareness should be done most reasonably, so having psychology as a core class, even in elementary, would help raise kids who are more aware. Changing the minds of adults now can be challenging, so not a lot can be done. However, shaping the future is a great way for the world to progress for the better.