Tax laws are changing in Japan. Beer, Happoshu, and third category zero malt beverages will have the same tax soon. Beer tax is down and the others up. The others exist to avoid the beer tax and be sold cheaper. It is anticipated that many of them will disappear. The typical rice lagers have always been in the beer category due to the malt percentage.

I believe that happoshu was meant to be removed as a category in BA as it does not represent a style (rather than a tax category). It may have happened already?

I've had my fair share of them and while unremarkable I've always found them fun to.enjou with a light meal.

Cheers!

Correct. Happoshu isn't a beer style and was removed from the site nearly a year ago.

This is my first time hearing of happoshu. What is it, exactly? What made it a formerly recognized beer style?

One day, dying in my bed surrounded by my loved ones, I'll reminisce about the good times and the bad. The enemies I kissed. The friends I bested. And somewhere in that montage of my life will be getting happoshu removed from this web community called BA that I love so dearly.

And as an unabashed ticker(at the time), I will remember that when happoshu was a nearly impossible style to acquire I cold DMed @Harrison8 after he posted about returning from Japan with spare cans. We hadn’t had any contact previously but we easily struck up a trade where he sent me a can so I could get my last style tick(also, at the time). To my surprise, he included a second can of happoshu as an extra! What a good guy!!!
I immediately knew that his generosity needed to be paid forward so I packed up that extra can and sent it to @Mikexw . Between that and another trade, we were both able to knock off all of the available styles on the site.
While i understand the reasoning, the removal of the style was a bit bittersweet, but nothing can take away the sense of generosity and community established from simply sending cans of beer to one another. I miss those days…

I get it from a ticker stance. However, if BA were a Japanese site, all Cantillon beers would have been "Happoshu." Is that a world you want to live in?

Too bad it took this long. I could've been spared at least one pointless style quest. But enough idle chat - Lichtenhainer awaiteth!
If it meant cheaper Cantillon, then yes.

It is beer-like but doesn’t have enough malt to be considered beer in Japan. I believe it has to be at least 50% malt to be considered beer.