Drunk Japan

In Drunk Japan, Mark D. West relies on an examination of thousands of Japanese court opinions to describe the role of alcohol in Japanese society. He turns conventional wisdom about Japanese law on its head, but focuses on alcohol, and particularly intoxication, in Japanese law. He covers virtually every aspect of Japanese drinking life, including what certain drinks mean, what kinds of activity take place in a wide range of drinking establishments, how drunk people are expected to behave, how sober people are expected to take care of them, how the drunk are punished (or not), why railway companies sue the heirs of drunk people who fall on the tracks to their deaths, and who those people are passed out on the sidewalks.