Japan's domestic consumption of the total 187.37 million kiloliter global beer market in 2012 was about 5.55 million kiloliters or about 3.0%. This statistic for total beer consumption in Japan also includes the beer-like happoshu. In terms of national per capita beer consumption Japan ranked 51st in 2014, equivalent to 42.6 liters per person, reflecting the diversified alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage market enjoyed by Japanese consumers. Demographic factors are expected to continue to push down sales of mass-market beer products in Japan for the foreseeable future as younger consumers are drinking less beer than previous generations. For the calendar year 2013, overall shipments for Japan's five largest brewers were 433.57 million cases, (a case is equivalent to 12.66 liters of beer or 27 US pints) more than 20% off the market peak achieved in 1992. However, for locally produced craft beers accounting for less than 1% of domestic beer consumption and selected premium imported beers, market opportunities continue to expand. According to local market data, in the first eight months of 2012, shipments of domestic craft beer rose 7.7 percent while sales by Japan's largest brewers continued a year on year decline. As of January 2014, Asahi, with a 38% market share, was the largest of the four major beer producers in Japan followed by Kirin with 35% and Suntory with 15%. Beer vs. happoshu Brewed alcoholic beverages in Japan are labelled and taxed according to their malt content (i.e., amount of alcohol derived from malted grains): legally, must have at least 50% malt, while beverages with less malt are collectively called . Happoshu (also translated as "low-malt beer") is taxed less than beer, and thus has appeal to the consumer. Beverages with less than 25% malt or no malt at all are often called , or , in reference to their even lower tax, despite not being labelled beer as such. To replace the highly taxed malt, brewers have developed innovative sources of starch and sugar to be fermented into alcohol not commonly used as brewing adjuncts elsewhere, including soy peptides and pea protein. A tax law revision that went into effect in 2018 lowered the malt requirement for the beer category, allowed more ingredients in beer, and introduced a plan to have beer and happoshu taxed at the same rates in 2026. This erosion of happoshu favorable tax rate "may in the long run favor traditional beer". Before