slake on
日本の若者の「ビール離れ」についての記事からです。
As tastes change, Japan’s beer brewers craft new ways to slake on
Whether at rooftop beer gardens or at fireworks extravaganzas and wood-paneled craft breweries, Japanese seem to quaff an awful lot of beer in the summer.
But beer consumption has been tanking for five years straight in Japan, as the younger generation shies away from the obligatory after-work drinking that was a trademark of the dark-suited heroes of Japan Inc.
Japan’s annual per capita beer consumption fell about 7 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to a study by major beer maker Kirin.
The outlook is for more of the same. It’s such an obvious trend that there’s a special phrase to describe it — biiru banare (“leaving beer”) — a gradual decline that hit after beer drinking peaked in about the mid-1990s.
Younger Japanese tend to be more independent-minded than their baby boom generation parents or their grandparents, who saw going out for beers with their bosses and co-workers as a call of duty.
Brews also are losing out in Japan to a wide variety of other alcoholic beverages, from wine to kanchuhai (fruity cocktails), whisky and cheaper quasi-beers, and of course, sake.
取り上げる表現は"slake on"です /sléɪk/。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で"slake"を調べてみると、「（欲望、飢え、渇きなど）を満たす、癒す」とあり、"slake one's thirst"で「渇きを癒す」という意味になります。LDOCEでは、"to drink so that you are not thirsty anymore"などと定義されています。団塊の世代と比べ、現代の若者は個々で独立しており、仕事帰りにビールを飲むという習慣が無い者が多いとのことで、ビール会社はこの若者のビール離れを無くすため様々な工夫を凝らしています。(Akim)
