発泡酒

Etymology
Compound of.

Noun

 * 1) a beer made with less malt by weight than the percentage required to be officially labelled as “beer”, as defined by the Japanese tax code (and thus avoiding the higher taxes on official “beer”)

Usage notes
Happōshu can be made with malt levels of 0% to 24% of the total fermentable ingredients by weight. Although it is sometimes equated with, happōshu is generally intended to at least resemble beer. The term became more widely used following changes in the Japanese tax code in the 1990s that levied higher taxes on beer made with higher percentages of malt. See the Wikipedia article for more details.