Expats working in Japan tell terrible stories about being required to drink after work.

What's grim about people recognizing that drinking has associated costs, financial, health, person, and social? Yeah those costs are manageable for most drinkers, but you have no way to know if you're going to be one of them, or end up at the bottom of a bottle until you try.

This is also part of a spate of similar articles I'm seeing a lot more of, and I wonder if there's some marketing money floating around trying to shift sentiment towards consumption, since after all it is a giant industry.

> there was a time when an after-work happy hour—loosely organized among a gaggle of officemates, all searching for a hit of debauchery to burn off the resentments of an annoying shift—was one of the sacred rites of employment.

Is this a regional thing, maybe? In my 40+ years in the industry, I don't think I've ever been aware of this sort of thing at any place I've worked.

Not a big fan of after work drinks but it‘s a great way to connect if you are new to the city. However, i think it is much better to connect and socialize with people outside of work. If financial dependencies are minimized, people tend to be more real.