Not directly relivent, but I have a Japanese colleague now works in Hong Kong who used to work in Osaka. She said she used to go out and drink every single night, be it business or social with other colleagues, and she used to be able to drink a lot.
Of course to "promote" drinking as a "hobby" will be a concern for me, but hopefully its simply lost in translation. My other colleague goes to those clubs (? Yen all you can for 30 minutes where there's a girl accompany you, where you buy girls their drink) when they are under pressure that just want to talk with random girl out there.