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Meet the 'Gekonomists': Teetotallers Nurse Flavoured Cocktails in a Hard-drinking Japan
News 18At a trendy Tokyo cocktail bar, customers sip brightly coloured beverages with sophisticated flavour profiles, designed for a small but growing market in hard-drinking Japan: teetotallers. “You sometimes hear statements like ‘you can’t get promoted if you can’t drink alcohol’,” said Fujino, who started a Facebook group for non-drinkers. “You’re told ‘we didn’t ask you to come because you can’t drink’ — this makes you feel lonely and discriminated against.” Fujino coined the term “gekonomist” for people like him — combining the word for people allergic to alcohol “geko” with “nomi” and the English suffix “ist”. “I thought it would be great if there were drink menu options other than tea and carbonated water for people like me who can’t drink much alcohol,” the 31-year-old told AFP. I like it very much.” Similar booze-free bars are cropping up elsewhere in Japan, with their locations enthusiastically shared on Fujino’s Facebook group, and health ministry data suggests heavy drinking is falling among young people.
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