Japanese beer companies produce what's called "Happoshu," which is sparkling low malt beverage. Since the tax for Happoshu is much less than the tax for beer, happoshu is cheaper than beer. For that reason, Happoshu has become very popular in Japan. Happoshu classification occurs when an ingredient other than malt, hops, rice, corn, kaoliang, potato, starch, or sugar is used, or if the malt ratio is less than 67%.
Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 4.0-7.0% --BeerAdvocate
