Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?

Though morning-after remedies are popular, their success lies more in marketing than science


People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking. | ANNA PETEK

by THU-HUONG HA
December 6, 2024

It’s a familiar scene for Tokyoites. On a Friday night in a Shibuya convenience store, with the line several people deep and the bathrooms “out of order,” the person ahead of you clutches just two items: one shiny can of alcohol and one small brass-colored bottle. You yourself may be stepping up to the register with the very same items in a moment, a long night of drinking ahead of you. This is perhaps Japan’s most well known pre-socializing ritual: The hangover drink konbini run.

Over the past several years a nascent market for pills and patches have cropped up in the U.S. promising relief from the thick dragon’s breath of the hangover. Wrapped in wellness marketing, these products promise to help the body metabolize alcohol faster and spare you from the worst in the morning.

But in Japan, hangover remedies aren’t a new fad. They don’t need to rely on sleek minimalist branding or claim to be backed by science. Shijimi clams, miso soup and umeboshi (pickled plums) are old home remedies, but they don’t have their own shelves in every convenience store, drug store and supermarket. Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan, generating an estimated $397.7 million (¥52.1 billion) in revenue in 2022 and making up about 20% of the world’s hangover remedy market.