japan turns to beer alternatives japanese brewers are increasingly making money from beer-flavoured drinks rather than beer itself  beer and spirits are heavily taxed in japan  driving breweries to search for alternatives. japan s long economic downturn helped drive the trend  as drinkers looked for cheaper opportunities to drown their sorrows. now  according to asahi breweries  the market for so-called  beer-like  drinks is set to grow 84% this year.  asahi is predicting profits to rise 50% in 2005 as it launches a drink based on soybean peptides rather than malt. the chosen name   shinnama  or  new draft   disguises its non-beer nature. but despite a record profit in 2004 of 30.6bn yen ($291m; £154m)  up 31.8% on the previous year  asahi is coming late to the market. key rival sapporo is already well-established with the beer-flavoured  draft one . suntory  meanwhile  is doing well with  super blue   which combines happoshu - an existing low-cost beer alternative made with malt and seawater - and shochu  a distilled alcohol derived from sweet potatoes or barley. happoshu has been a mainstay of brewery profits for years  taking over from beer thanks to its low tax and therefore low cost. kirin  the fourth big name  is launching its own  third-type  drink in april.