Thirsty consumers in Japan have gone back to basics. For the first time, a mineral water product has become the nation's best-selling non-alcoholic drink. The bottled H2O topped the decades-long leader, coffee, in 2018.
A private research firm says Suntory's "Tennensui," a natural mineral water, sold over 117 million cartons last year. That's up 8.6 percent from the previous year.
The Georgia coffee brand came in second, with sales down 3.6 percent. Last year was the first time in 28 years for the product to fall from the No. 1 position.
Tap water is safe to drink in Japan, but officials at the research firm say bottled water sales have been on a steady rise. They also say a number of disasters that hit the country appear to have prompted people to stockpile water, and last summer's scorching heat is also believed to have boosted demand.
◆go back to basics基本に立ち返るused to describe a return to teaching or doing the most important or simplest things
◆decades-long何十年にわたる
◆stockpile備蓄するa large supply of things that is kept ready for use in the future
◆scorching焼けるようなextremely hot
