Introduction: beer's evolution into a Japanese commodity -- Foreign influences: the origins of Japan's beer brewing industry, 1868-1906 -- Keeping up appearances: maintaining beer's German authenticity, 1906-36 -- Brewing self-sufficiency: beer, empire, and the wartime command economy, 1937-45 -- "The taste of home": beer as postwar Japanese commodity, 1945-72 -- Learning from Japan: "Orion beer" and Okinawan consumer identity, 1945-72 -- Indigenous brews: innovation, entrepreneurship, and beer's continuing evolution.