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English mistake on new Japanese beer leads to suspension of sales before its release

Oona McGee Jan 11, 2021
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Exciting Family Mart and Sapporo beer collaboration goes straight in the can after the error was discovered.

Beer lovers in Japan had been looking forward to the release of a new limited-edition brew this January. Jointly developed by Sapporo, one of the nation’s largest breweries, and Family Mart, one of the country’s largest convenience store chains, the new beer was set to use the same traditional manufacturing methods as Japan’s first beer factory, Kaitakushi Brewery, which was founded in 1897.

▼ The limited-edition brew was named Kaitakushi Bakushu Shitate, or “Kaitakushi Beer Tailored“.

However, the new beer was cancelled before even making it to store shelves, and it wasn’t due to any fault with the beer itself–the issue was with the packaging. According to individual statements released by both Family Mart and Sapporo Breweries just days before the scheduled 12 January release, the beer was suspended due to the misspelling of the word “lager” on the label.

▼ Instead of “Lager” the cans had “Lagar” printed on them.

The misspelling was evident in the original press release announcing the beer on 5 January, which came with large, high-resolution images. While some might have initially assumed “lagar” was an intentional design choice, this doesn’t appear to be the case, as Sapporo Breweries issued an apology three days later, saying:

“Due to incorrect spelling found in a section of the Kaitakushi Beer Tailored product design, we have decided to discontinue sales. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience to customers.”

Customers who’d been eagerly awaiting the new release had this to say about the cancellation:

“I don’t care about the spelling error, I just want you to release the beer! I need to know what it tastes like!”
“I don’t mind that you misspelled ‘lager”. It’s not like you wrote ‘bear’ inside of ‘beer’!”
“If you release it with the error, sales would probably go through the roof!”
“It just goes to show how important it is to check for errors in ads and labels during the production process.”
“I wish I could taste it, but I hope what they’ve made doesn’t go to waste. They should gift the cans to frontline workers or something.”

While the fate of the brew is yet to be disclosed, the beer was only being made in limited numbers so there is a slim chance that the error was caught before the cans were filled. However, the notice of suspension of sales failed to make any mention of a re-release, so we’ll just have to wait and see if the taste of Japan’s first brewery will be making it to our lips any time soon.

In the meantime, we’ll be pulling the tabs on these new wide-mouthed Asahi Super Dry cans and keeping an eye out for any more English mistakes.

Source: Sapporo Beer (1, 2), Family Mart
Featured image: Sapporo Beer
Insert images: Sapporo Beer (edited by SoraNews24)
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