In the past few years, it has increased, and will probably continue to increase for a long time. Even though the law sets a minimum age limit, it does not always get put into effect within a teenagers mind. Even though the amount of teenagers drinking have changed since the 70's and 80's, almost 80% of high schoolers have admitted to have thought about drinking. Most teenagers drink way before their legal age, and that is because school laws have changed. In the 1990s, if a teen was caught just once with one drink in their hand, they would be permanently expelled. School policies were much more strict than they were now. But those would result in a teen becoming suicidal for not being able to finish high school.
Reports also show that many alcohol- related crimes have decreased within the past decade.



"Understanding Alcohol Abuse - Issues, Controversies, Independent Analysis." Understanding Alcohol Abuse - Issues, Controversies, Independent Analysis. N.p., Apr. 2005. Web. 19 July 2012. <http://alcoholnews.org/>.

Why do parents allow their children to drink?

Since parents are the ones who teach their children a lot of things, with the exception of schoolwork, should they be the ones teaching their children how to drink responsibily? Some parents allow their teenagers to drink, not hard liquor, but light things, such as wine or beer. They assume that if they drink with their family, teenagers may be less likely to binge drink when they are by themselves or with friends.
Many parents however argue that underage drinking in any way is dangerous, and allowing their children to drink is like telling them that it is alright to break the law. The United States government have created a survey, trying to obtain information on how teenagers get their alcohol, and most of the times, the parents are the suppliers. By the time teenagers turn 21, 86% of American teens have drunk alcohol at least once, and 50% are going to be binge drinking (2009 National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health). Teenagers are somewhat believing that as long as their parents are the ones giving them alcohol, somehow, the harmful risks of drinking are lifted.

Beck, Melinda. "Dad, I Prefer the Shiraz." The Wall Street Journal- Health Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 18 July 2012.

Answer to questions:
What are the differences between Japanese and American Drinkers?
Why does age mater? What is exactly the difference between 21 and 20?

The highest drinking age in the world is parts of India.
People are required to be 25 in order to drink alcohol. Even though the ages are different in most countries, such as Japan being 20 and America being 21, all countries are setting an age to encourage people to be more responsible. Apparently, in most countries, the legal drinking age is 18 years old.


The lowest drinking age is 16 (Countries in Europe). Countries such as Germany set 16years old as the minimum drinking age for beer and wine but 18 for hard liquor.

It is probably the amount of responsibility the person can handle, if children are taught to behave with alcohol since they were young, they are most likely to be able to handle it at the age of 16. In my opinion, I see it as if children are told not to drink until their legal age, they are most likely going to misbehave and abuse their privilages.


Smith, S.E., and O. Wallace. "What Are the Legal Drinking Ages Around the World?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, n.d. Web. 18 July 2012. .

Hello everybody! As Lika has mentioned below, I would like it if everybody can cooperate with this survey! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7MHNTKW We will post the results on this blog! Thank you in advance!

Before answering the survey, here are some brief knowledge about teenage drinking now.

In Japan the age limit for drinking is 20 years old under the law. This law has been made in 1922. However, it is said that alcohol is sold very easily to under aged teenagers at many places without showing their ID(ex. convenience stores, grocery stores etc). So at a glance it seems rather pointless to set an age limit. But do you know what happens if the country doesn't set any limit?
Actually, there are only a few countries that does not have a drinking age limit, for example China. But instead, most countries have a MDA and MPA.

MDA stands for- Minimum Drinking Age
MPA stands for- Minimum Purchasing Age


Regarding drinking age limits, it is divided into two; 'Regulate Drinking itself', and 'Regulate Buying/Selling Alcohol'. Drinking age limits, the place to drink and so on depends on the country's laws.
According to this website, the country that has the lowest MDA is Italy, Spain, France and Germany (16 yrs), and the highest is America and 3 other countries (21 yrs).
In Europe, the age limits depends on how high the alcohol degree is.
In the US, it depends on what country it is.

In a survey conducted to about 44,629 high school students in 2004 by Sapporo Beer Company, in Japan 76.6% of boys and 74.2% of girls (which means under-aged) have drank alcohol before.Although the law strictly forbids under-aged drinking, parents tend to encourage their child to drink as they get older. They do know that alcohol is bad for their health, but do they know what kind of causes occur?

As everyone can guess, drinking before the body develops completely can give great damage to the brain. Also, it affects bones and genital organs for both men and women. Another research says that younger people have higher risks in getting alcohol addiction. It can even change one's character. If you drink without responsibility, it does not only affect yourself but also the people around you. Take drunk driving for example. It can bring out about 430 cases of drunk driving related accidents in just one year.


I have LOTS more to research on, but for today I am going to BED! Good night everyone.

Here's the reference websites.
Asahi Beer Homepage
Reference Site

I'm sorry that they are in Japanese. But if you can read Japanese I think they can be useful.

Hello everyone.
It would be very grateful if you would answer this survey so I can use the results as valuable data. It would only take a few minutes to answer. Thank you very much for your participation :)


Click here to TAKE THE SURVEY!

According to a Century Council study, nine out of ten American teens claim that underage drinking is not worth the consequences. Century Council Study says that over 100,000 college students are arrested each year for alcohol related violations. Examples are drinking in public or DWI. The cost of underage drinking is only about $25, but it can easily go over hundreds of dollars when thinking of additional lawyer and court fee. A drinking ticket costs only $250 and 24 hours of community survice. But all the fees depend on whichever state or country you might live in. Also, drinking and driving can risk other peoples' lives and you'll be charged with homicide and the guilt feeling of having killed a human being for the rest of your life.
Keranakis, Lauren. "The East Carolinian." The East Carolinian. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2012. .

I have made two word clouds using a site called NIAAA, and from an article on young people's drinking behavior in Japan, written and based on many surveys and reports.

Top- WordItOut
Bottom- TagCrowd

A word cloud from a site called NIAA.

"SerenitySteps"
A group on Yahoo Answers. This group helps people recover from any kind of addiction (including alcoholism).
Many of the people in this group have suffered problems that require support from their surroundings. Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and Mental illnesses (bipolar, identity disorder). These people join this group in order to change their lifestyles and to fix whatever their problem is.

This group has over 400 members and recent posts have been taken over by spam; but if you look through everything there are posts regarding members' problems.


For finding more groups about this topic, I suggest going to ExperienceProject. This site revolves around many different groups of people with their own stories to tell.

There are of course both legal and non-legal consequences. Legal consequences are consequences regarding the law. Non-legal are those effecting a person mentally or physcially. Physical consequences include things such as homicide and suicide. Homicide can automatically connect to nasty legal problems as well. Every year 5000 teens die from alcohol related injuries. 1600 of them are from homicide. Underage drinking can also lead to sexual assault and rape, and both males and females can be victims. Rape drugs are also added to alcoholic drinks which create the risk of sexual assault. The long term affects are alcoholism and many internal problems. It can also damage the brain and trigger memory problems. Drinking makes it harder for teens to make accurate decisions and it is said that drinking alcohol increases the risk of students killing themselves. But suicide is only just a small percentage of drinking related deaths every year. Legal consequences are not as harsh as everybody thinks. But everything depends on where the teen lives. They may only lose their drivers license. But some may end up serving time in jail. Sometimes drinking can be related to another serious crime (rape, homicide) which increases the consequences. Another consequence can be put on the parents, or relatives of the teen. They may end up having to paty heavy fines and adults are also at risk of having to serve jail time.

1. Why are college students more likely to binge drink than high school students?
2. Why does age mater? What is exactly the difference between 21 adn 20?
3. Is underage drinking really worth the consequences?
4. What are the consequences of underage drinking?
5. Are the consequences of underage drinking too harsh or just about right?
6. What are the differences between Japanese and American Drinkers?
7. Why do most parents allow underage drinking?
8. Has the percentage of underage drinking increased or decreased within the past few years?
9. Us drunk driving one of the leading causes of death for teenagers?
10. How does alcohol destroy your body?

1. Why is the age limit 20 years old in Japan and not other ages like 18 or 21? 2. How do mothers think when they find out their teenage children are drinking under-aged? 3. Why do teenagers feel that they need to drink? 4. What type of teenagers are likely to drink? 5. What kind of activities do parents do to prevent their under-aged child from drinking? 6. What kind of activities do schools do to prevent under-aged students from drinking? 7. What kind of activities do mass medias do to prevent under-aged children from drinking? 8. What influences/encourages under-aged children to drink? 9. There are some countries that have lower/none age limits. Why does it differ in other countries when under-aged drinking is a problem? 10. Should Japanese children have the rights to choose to drink under-aged?

This page says that Drinking age should be lowered. Because if voting and military sign up is eighteen, then drinking should also be eighteen. Besides, in many countries, drinking age is eighteen, or sixteen.

I would like you to think and answer about these questions for understanding issues on our topic more deeply. 1. Should teenagers bepermitted to drink alcohol under the supervision of adults, for example parents or older brothers?And why? 2. Which do you think the minimum drinking age should be lowered, should be raised, or just as it is? 3. How old is the minimum drinking age in other countries? 4. Do you know certainly the punishment for teenager drinking? 5. What kind of diseases related to alcohol do you know there are? 6. What percentage of people had drunk alcohol before coming of age? 7. What do you think about the selling of alcohol drink at supermarkets, or convenient stores? 8. How many teenagers who died of acute alcoholic poisoning are there every year? 9. How do you feel about the crime of drunk driving? 10. Do you think drinking alcohol is related to smoking?And why?

Hi, my name's Ted. Three months passed since I got in this public university in Tokyo, and I have one thing that's really getting on my nerves lately. People saying "OMG, I drank too much last night so I'm going to skip school today hahaha. Oh since you're going because you don't drink, will you take my attendance for me? haha" Yeah, very funny. I mean what is the point of bragging about how much you drank alcohol? I wonder if they have any guilty conscience that drinking is against the law? If they think they're cool because they can drink, they should really think better. I don't drink alcohol but I still get invited to drinking parties. So I think being invited to those parties doesn't really matter to whether you drink alcohol or not. When I go, I only drink soft drinks like Coke or orange juice. Why? Because its simply against the law. I can wait another year until I'm legally able to drink.

This April, I got into the university that I wanted. Now, I have drinking parties like almost everyday. And I love to go to night clubs. YESSS. Drinking is so fun, you can be the real you! I can't remember how many times I've drank too much and skipped school because I had a really bad hangover the next day lol. People say its bad for the health, but I can't see anything bad with my body so far. I don't know but maybe it's just a superstition. I don't really care because it's fun! So what if I'm underaged? I mean, everybody drinks, and it wouldn't be cool if you didn't.

Continuing from my previous post on why Drinking age doesn't matter (stats by parents), I would like to point out on why Lowering Drinking age can be considered a bad idea.

According tor research from The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commision claims that lowering drinking age would enhance those negative aspects that come from drinking alcohol. Right now, the drinking age is 21 in America; but younger kids are drinking anyways. So say-- if the drinking age is lowered to 15, much younger kids, like 10year olds might start drinking.
Drinking at a younger age would also enhance risks of drunk driving among college students and high schoolers. High Schoolers are being warned for texting while driving, but they'll now also have to be warned from drinking while driving. All of these should be common  sense, but teenagers are bound to break these laws.

Drinking alcohol also have an effect on development amongst children and teenagers. A teenagers' brain and organs have not fully developed until a certain age of adulthood. It would destroy a teenagers' future and body. Drinking can also gain likelihood of unplanned and unprotected sex.


Doug, Carlson. "Lowering Drinking Age." The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. N.p., 2008. Web. 24 May 2012. <http://zvcwyief.erlc.com/article/lowering-drinking-age-research-says-bad-idea/>.

Drinking age must not be lowered. First, alcohol consumption can interfere with brain's development. The brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization, continue to  develop through adolescence. Second, drinking alcohol often allows people to go to bas or nightclubs, which are not safe environments. If they can be easy to be implicated in a crime, teenagers must be much more so.

Frankly speaking, many teenagers have drunk alcohol, at least once, with their friends or their parents. Even if there is one who has never drunk, he or she would have time to drink at once when entering a college, even being still a teenager. People drink alcohol to open up to each other. First, colleges or universities are the place where students can think more freely, study more freely, and move more freely than before (there may be a little rule). The students there have to learn not only studies, but also the way to live as adults. Then  it should be important to learn how to drink alcohol. Many new students at a college are 18 years old. However, minimum drinking age is 20 years old. The gap of 2 years (18 to 20) is incomprehensible.

My brother drinks all the time. He comes home drunk every night blabbering about who knows what and passes out. It's so annoying, I always end up having to take care of him. Why can't he just drink only once a week, just on fridays or something!? Why does he have to drink every day. The other day, he was caught with a bottle of alcohol on school grounds and got suspended. He's still only a Junior in High School, off course he'll get caught. He thinks that all high schoolers drink all the time. He says the school gives him alcohol during parties. Like that's true; people are just sneaking alcohol in! The school will not just let their children break the law that easily! He needs to learn and know that the 'cool' kids are not the one drinking. He may want to fit in, but he'll lose all his friends if he causes a problem. If he gets arrested he'll be the center of all the gossip going around, not that he isn't right now-- he was suspended! Drinking alcohol is so not right, especially when underage. There are more ways to turn your mood upside down besides alcohol. Isn't there?

I have a 15year old son who drinks alcohol almost every night. I don't find it bad, I'm there to supervise him while he drinks. Drinking alcohol is part of growing up, I don't see why underage drinking is illegal. They're bound to drink sometime. He enjoys it and he doesn't get drunk-- well, a bit tipsy maybe, but not too drunk that he can't control himself. He is only 15 years old but he is a responsible adult! I know that he won't drink outside in public (I hope) and I have taught him all the rules so I'm sure he'll be just fine. He will not go on drinking while driving, so no DUI for him, and he will not cause any disturbances to other people. My son knows his limit. Drinking too much will cause him a headache and a bad hangover; I'm sure he doesn't want to experience that again. He knows that his face getting red with a body full of goosebumps are signs for him to stop drinking. I think people saying that drinking is destroying their bodies but I think that's rubbish. My son is such a good child unlike those getting arrested. He will be fine, I trust him and he will not betray me. He will not be drinking irresponsibly in public. He will not be drinking at all in public, period. I am sure of it. Someone should just lift the age limit, my son knows how to drink like a young man!

Our topic is focused on teenage drinking. Underage drinking is not exactly a huge problem, but it should be carefully looked upon to prevent un-needed trouble. But first I would like to touch upon the fact that most teenagers are believing that drinking is not a big deal when it really is.
Teenagers these days are often told that drinking is okay, if they are not in public and are drinking privately. If they are to drink, they are to drink safely, that was it. If they aren't causing a huge problem, then anything is alright-- even if it means breaking the law.
Teenagers are most likely to drink if their parents encourage them, or if their surroundings (friends) drink.

The Century Council has brought us some interesting statistics

Also


Many parents feel that they are the only ones who are able to teach their children how to drink responsibly. They seem to forget that underage drinking is illegal. So as long as the parents themselves are aware of where their children are drinking, they don't seem to mind.


Drinking is alright as long as a supervisor is aware of where and how much the teen is planning on drinking. There is no harm in enjoying a glass of wine with a meal.

I'm Daichi. Sometime I see news on television, in newspapers. Recently, I've heard the news of accidents related to drinking alcohol many times. I feel so sad every time I hear it. However, we can be fun if drinking moderately. So, we can discuss whether young people should be permitted to drink alcohol.

Hello, my name is Maya and I would like to focus on teenage drinking, along with my partners, Lika and Daichi. We will focus on many issues that people may come across when they pick up a bottle of alchohol. We are neither against or for drinking so we will not take sides and would like to offer mutual opinions upon teenage drinking. Though, we are human beings as well- and off course, we too have opinions that may not seem mutually fair.
Drinking is not the only topic we will discuss; we will also discuss the problems and effects associated with Drinking. An example would be drunk driving. Drunk driving is also a huge problem-- people will drink while under the influence no matter what the law says. When people drink, it is not only about themselves, but they are also causing problems for others as well. They may risk another persons' life. I would like people to keep in mind that Alchohol may effect both themselves and others. We hope to help people understand the topic of 'Drinking' itself. Not whether its good or bad, but the what 'Drinking really is'.
We are not saying it's good to drink, but we are not saying it's a wrong doing either. We will work hard to show both views upon this topic.

My name is Lika Tomoyama! We will discuss the issues associated with Teenage Drinking!!!!!!!!!!!11