Total shipments of beer and beerlike drinks in Japan dropped 3.7 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to a record-low 442.39 million cases, due partly to disruption to supplies after the 11 March calamities, industry data showed on 17 January.

The latest annual shipments marked the second largest fall since comparable data became available in 1992, and the seventh straight year that an all-time low has been seen, data by five major brewers showed.