Dining Guide / Japanese Dining
Pouring and Kanpai
Pour bottled beer label up with both hands, and lift your glass when someone pours for you. Here's how high to hold your glass for kanpai, and how a memorial kenpai differs.
Key Points
- Pour bottled beer with the label facing up, holding the bottle in your right hand and supporting it with your left. About three parts foam is the classic target. Don't rest the bottle on the glass.
- When someone pours for you, pick up your glass with your right hand, support the bottom with your left, and tilt it slightly toward them.
- When a senior person's glass is running low, wait for a pause and ask what they'd like next. Some people dislike being topped up.
- When clinking glasses with someone senior, hold yours slightly lower. If you're seated apart, raising your glass and nodding is enough.
- At a kenpai — a memorial toast after a Buddhist service — glasses aren't clinked, the word is said quietly, and there's no applause.
Do
- Use both hands at formal occasions
- Thank whoever pours for you
- Join the toast with a soft drink if you don't drink
Avoid
- Resting the bottle on the rim of the glass
- Pressing people to drink more
- Clinking glasses at a kenpai
Handy Tip
Had enough? Leave a little in your glass, or cover it lightly with your hand and say you're fine. It declines graciously without any awkwardness.
Customs That Vary
Attitudes toward pouring for yourself (tejaku) and topping up vary by generation, workplace and region, and many groups mind less than they used to. At formal Western dinners, wine is poured with the glass left on the table — see "Wine and Toasts."
Practice in a Lesson
Sources
- Japan National Tourism Organization, “Japanese Food Etiquette Guide” — Japanese place settings, chopsticks, shared dishes and pouring drinks.