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The story
This thread was sparked by a news article about a German visitor to Japan who was surprised that restaurants serve water for free. The article describes their bewilderment, wondering ‘is it really okay to drink this?’ On 5ch, users discussed why Japan’s tap water is safe to drink straight from the faucet, and how parts of Europe, including Germany, have hard water, making mineral water a daily necessity there. Opinions were split between a jaded take — ‘Japan’s water is just tap water after all’ — and the view that ‘being able to drink free, safe water at all is rare by global standards,’ with the discussion also touching on regional differences in tap water taste.
In Germany: ¥1,000 → In Japan: Free — German Visitor’s Culture Shock: The Surprising Service That Left Them Feeling ‘A Little Guilty’ in Japan
(…omitted…)
‘Is it really okay to drink this?’ — Bewildered and a little guilty about the free service
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
If enough people make comments like that, Japan will start charging ¥1,000 for it too.
Places trying to seem 'foreign-chic' already charge for it.
If they started charging for the free water (o-hiya), the place would go under, obviously.
In Germany it depends on the region, but it's hard water.
Beer and sausages are free though.
Some regions have hard water. Apparently it even varies within the same city.
Berlin's greatest traditional snack culture
| Street Food Currywurst
Berlin, Germany
https://youtu.be/hmeALeTJ6So?t=3748
That's the trick — quietly put it on the table, and you only find out it's ¥800 at the register. If water's going to cost money, you should normally be able to pick the brand off a menu.
It's run through a water purifier though.
Just being drinkable at all is already a big deal…
Try drinking hard water every day.
In Germany you can get 500ml for as little as 80 yen lol
'The water's bad, so people drink beer instead' — that's actually the case in quite a few places around the world.
Re: #16 Quit lying lol — also, Germany uses centiliters (cl) as its unit, by the way.
That's not a thing in Germany, right? lol
There'll definitely be foreigners who end up arguing over that.
Even with the otoshi fee added, it's still cheaper in Japan, so I think people will just accept it. Eating out in the West is on a whole different price level compared to Japan.
I wonder if there's tipping in Germany.
Re: #40
Convenience stores and supermarkets sell water too. As long as the brand is clearly shown, nobody complains about it being sold.
Does anyone actually drink that?
You've never drunk it?
Even the drinks at restaurants that aren't plain water — the tea leaves or concentrate are brewed with tap water. It's all just flavored tap water.
Nope. Do you drink it?
You've seriously never once drunk the water served at a restaurant?
Why would you rack up bad karma lying about something this pointless?
Most people have the experience of drinking the water at a restaurant as a kid, when their parents took them out to eat. Unless… you had health-conscious parents who told you not to drink it?
It's a country where selling water gets you cancelled online, so making it free can't be helped.
Sounds like you've only ever lived in places with bad-tasting tap water.
Is there actually a region with good-tasting tap water? It's bad unless you filter it, right?
If you chill it, it's decent — from Tokyo. Though my palate's dumb enough that I'd mix up tap water and Alpine natural spring water 😭
Might depend on the place, but the water straight out of the treatment plant is genuinely good. Maybe it's the pipes along the way that stink it up? So in a way it's kind of a 'home lottery.'
On top of that, you're never short of food either — Japan's a blessed country just for that alone.
No wonder so many immigrants want to come here.
Using water clean enough to drink, in huge quantities, every day just to flush toilets — that's a serious luxury.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Free water at Japanese restaurants isn’t a legal requirement — it’s a customer-service custom known as ‘o-hiya’ that has become firmly established. Behind this lies the fact that Japan is one of the few countries in the world where tap water is safe to drink straight from the faucet. Even by classifications from bodies like the UN Environment Programme, only around a dozen or so countries worldwide have tap water safe enough to drink directly, and in many other countries mineral water is the norm due to issues like limescale and chlorine smell from hard water. Opinions split within the thread between the jaded view that it’s ‘just tap water after all’ and the view that ‘having free access to safe water is itself a luxury’ — a divide that tends to reflect the gap in perspective between people familiar with hard-water regions and those who aren’t. The remark that ‘charging for it would spark online backlash’ reflects real cases in recent years of some restaurants charging tourists separately for mineral water, highlighting the tension between custom and business.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread ‘In Germany It’s ¥1,000 → In Japan It’s Free: German Visitor Says ‘I Want to Stay in Japan Forever, They Gave Me Water for Free’.’
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