oh, why?
Anything above 3.5% can only be sold by a state owned distributor which is only open until 18/6PM on weekdays, 14/2PM on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays. (might differ slightly depending on region) The official reason is to counter alcoholism by forcing people to pre-plan their purchases which doesn't really make sense since alcoholics can pre-purchase as well as anybody else so all this really does is inconvenience people who don't like to keep a stock at home. I'd even argue it encourages alcoholism since you're made to keep it at home "just in case" making it that much more accessible when you don't actually have to
plan to go to a store and buy it.
I'm pretty sure the government just want to retain their monopoly but good luck convincing anybody of that around here. For making so much noise about not wanting people to drink or advertising they sure raking in a lot of cash by doing this, I bought the exact same bottle I usually do in Japan last year and it was a quarter of the price it is at home. It is also terrible for any small business owner who want to promote their product, our sortiment is so limited compared to other countries.