What can restaurants and drinking establishments do with their alcohol in stock amid requests to stay home due to the spread of the novel coronavirus? An increasing number of them are selling it for takeout, thanks to a new liquor license.
The government created a limited-term liquor retail license, good for six months, that takes only a matter of days to receive approval, rather than the usual two months. Restaurants and drinking establishments having been rushing to apply for the license before the end-of-June deadline.
"I'm grateful I can drink this sake at home that I can't get anywhere else," said a doctor who stopped by Kaisen Izakaya Maru by Kinshicho Station in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on the evening of May 12.
He smiled as he received his purchase of sake from Yamagata Prefecture and some food to go with it from the izakaya pub's Ryuta Marumitsu. The izakaya sells about 60 types of sake from breweries nationwide.
The number of customers at the restaurant, however, disappeared in a flash after late March, when Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike requested that Tokyo residents refrain from going out.
Though the pub then focused on selling food for takeout, alcohol was hard to sell for in-store consumption as nighttime hours were shortened. So the stock of alcohol continued to increase. A regular customer even told Marumitsu, "It'd be great if I could buy the alcohol and not just the food" to take home.
On April 9, the central government announced the introduction of the limited-term liquor retail license as a measure to support restaurants and drinking establishments. When Marumitsu submitted the necessary documents to the tax office the following day, he received the license in less than a week, and was able to start selling alcohol for takeout that same day.
Sales are going well and are almost equal to the sales the store used to have.
"I'm happy to be able to meet customers, even for a short time," Marumitsu said. "Even if the state of emergency is lifted, I don't think customers will return right away, so I want to do my best."
On the other side of town in Shibuya Ward is Frigo, a beer hall near Shinjuku Station that serves more than 160 varieties of Belgian beer. It became conspicuously empty in the evenings after people began to refrain from going out. So when Frigo announced through social media that it had started selling its beer for takeout, regular customers began to drop by to buy beer.
The prices of beer for takeout are 20% off the in-store price. There are even customers who stock up, wanting to lay down some bottles at home for a few years before trying them.
"Normally, we would like to let people enjoy the taste of beer on the premises, but for now, we want them to enjoy it at home," said the manager of the beer hall.
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