Business

Beer-Guzzling Rugby Fans Are About to Invade Japan’s Bars

Supporters from England, Australia, and Ireland are expected to drink four times as much as locals.

Illustration: Xavier Lalanne-Tauzia for Bloomberg Businessweek

As fans prepare to descend on Japan for the Rugby World Cup, there’s one question organizers are asking: Will there be enough beer?

Watching rugby and drinking beer go hand in hand. While the Japanese like beer—they drank 53.5 liters per person in 2018—the British, Australians, and Irish, some of the sport’s biggest aficionados, typically consume about double that amount, according to Euromonitor. About a third of ticket sales have gone to overseas fans, mostly from those three countries.