Japan's brewers learn how to make women drink more

Tokyo

FACED with a shrinking beer market at home, Japanese brewers are shoring up sales by targeting women with a range of fizzy, fruity canned cocktails, but the strategy hasn't been without some hiccups along the way.

Traditional disapproval of women drinking in public has faded due to social change, with more women in the workforce, earning money to spend any way they want.

But attitudes have changed in other ways too, and brewers had to learn old marketing strategies that relied on gender stereotyping weren't going to persuade modern Japanese women to buy their drinks.

"I don't need the patronising kawaii (cute) in my drinks to tell me that it's a…