Tap vs. Bottled Water in Japan - let's explore the most abundant resource on this island.

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Preface: Japanese tap water is drinkable!

Not only is Japanese tap water free, but you can drink it for free even in restaurants. It is one of the most abundant resources in the country. On average, Japanese households use about 50 liters of water a day! ( daily showers - 20 minutes per family member, toilet flushes, cooking, making soba, teas, miso soups…etc.) Most if not all toilets in Japan are free to use even in convenience stores.

( " In places like Mozambique, Africa one liter of water can buy you a wife")

Japanese water is cheap. Average water cost per month is under 4000 yen / $40USD! < = For a single person living by himself and using water everyday for everything will pay less than this.

Can you drink tap water in Japan?

Yes. And lots of it. Japanese water is quite delicious actually. In @HiroyukiTakisawa hometown, his tap water is probably very delicious, as well as the bottle water. Picture #1

In spite of Japanese tap water being fairly delicious, most Japanese prefer drinking bottle water and surprisingly many prefer brands such as Volvic and Avian waters. The reason for this is because ALL of MOST of Japanese water is SOFT water.

Captain Tony Japan is here:

There are some medium hard options for water below. Japan’s bottled water market is thriving and is growing in popularity.

Final note:

Japanese tap water is treated with chlorine and other substances, just like other industrialized nations, the only difference is the standard and high quality aspect and strict regulation.

Top [ Spring water tapped after 100 years of sleep ! This is a carbonated water]

Top [ Ryusendo] I actually visited the water cave before the great earthquake of March 11th and bought the actually bottle in the picture from the site.

Top { Echigo water]

Top: [ Hardness: 66 !
Very good. Nice hard taste, but still very natural at the same time. It’s called Hita Sui from Oita Prefecture.

Top: [Hyotan Mizu]

Remember, this water springs from a gourd deep in Nara the ancient city in Japan.
Again
Hardness: 89.5

Top:[ Mashyuko from Hokkaido. Hardness 19]

Top: [ Yakushima Island Jomon Water. Kagoshima]
Hardness 12
Nice refreshing. Very easy to drink.

The water bottle below is the same water but in a limited collectors edition.

[Ant_Bad_Yogi]

@user_not_found So you prefer tap water or bottle water? Mostly I drink bottle green tea. We can find cheap one in convenient stores. It tastes so good and the smell is so nice. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[MukulR]

@user_not_found Nice post with amazing photos and important information. But I think one thing is missing in this post which I must mention. Title of the post is Tap vs Bottled- but we see photos of bottles only not any single photo of Tap. I do not see any reason behind this. Maybe Japan has strict law to show photos of water tap publicly. Hahaha. Don’t take it other way, I just made fun.

People of developed countries are lucky in a sense that they need to think about pure drinking water. Countries in South Asia, Arica, Central America get water from the government, but that water is not directly drinkable. You must purify it before you drink.

Thanks once again for sharing this nice post with us here.

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@Ant_Bad_Yogi Depends on the region. Tap water in Oigami city is better than most bottled water, so I prefer that over tap water. Tokyo tap water, especially in the summer, is still good enough to drink, but still I would prefer bottled water. In areas near southern, Kanagawa I would prefer tap water over bottled water. Depends on the mineral content.

Basically, it depends on the region where you live in Japan that will determine water preference for myself and other water lovers. I might do a part 2 to this. Osaka is known for having delicious mineral water, too, and I forgot to add the photo.

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@MukulR haha… no worries. As a matter of fact I do have several pictures of tap water. I actually met with the public water service and have photos of that. I will have to rummage through my photos and post a supplemental to this post. Thanks for reminding me. Btw, thank you for the additional information at the bottom. I definitely understand conditions in other places…

[MukulR]

@user_not_found Thanks for the understanding. I will be waiting for the update.

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@MukulR Here they are

[MukulR]

@user_not_found Thanks for the update. Really amazing. I like it.

[HiroyukiTakisawa]

Hello, @user_not_found

Thank you for introducing bottled water in Japan.
The Water of Ryusendo well known with good bottled water nationwide is good soft water. I love it too:-)

And when it comes to bottled water, @yooo is a specialist. @yooo , do you have anything to add?

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@HiroyukiTakisawa Yes. It is my favorite bottled water, too. I also left out a few here.

ph 6.8

pH 6.7

pH 7.1

These are a few more bottled water brands I really like here.

[yooo]

Hello.

@TonyAlexander

Thank you for introducing Japanese mineral water.

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Hey @yooo ! Thank you for your nice comments and nice to meet you:) I love Japanese soft mineral water, especially in the summer. I have a blog on Japan, too, but Connect does not allow me to use my link here, nor do they allow me to promote my blog. <= @HiroyukiTakisawa The only place I can put my blog link is in my profile page. I’m sure you blog is amazing. The water bottle in your picture looks rare. Does it have high pH?

[yooo]

@user_not_found

I’m sorry. Delete the link.

Please read my blog on my profile page later.
I have been introducing over 2500 kinds of Japanese mineral water.

Mineral water is a product of Nihon University. The pH is 7.8.

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@yooo Thank you for your information.

[system]

Hi @yooo and @HiroyukiTakisawa

This one is definitely good! Thanks for sharing.