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The 'Sweat' you drink: Inside the meteoric

rise of Asia's answer to Gatorade

By Emiko Jozuka, CNN Business

Updated 0002 GMT (0802 HKT) August 2, 2020

In the 1989 US blockbuster "Back to the Future II," time traveler Marty McFly orders a
Pepsi Perfect at Hill Valley's futuristic Cafe 80s. It was an iconic moment of product
placement.

But if you look very closely at a di�erent scene showing future McFly as he video-
conferences a co-worker in 2015, another brand makes a cameo appearance.

That drink was called Pocari Sweat. And despite its name — unappetizing to native
English speakers — it's a well-known Japanese sports drink across Asia and the
Middle East.
If you look very closely, you'll see a small blue and white Pocari Sweat can in the
center of this frame.

Though the film's creators didn't have a product placement deal with Pocari Sweat,
they had given their art department a general directive to include Japanese elements
in the scenes depicting 2015, says Bob Gale, the producer and writer of "Back to the
Future II."

"In the late '80s, Japanese companies were buying a lot of American companies,
notably Sony purchasing Columbia Pictures and Panasonic buying Universal.
Japanese video games were the market leaders, Japanese cars were outselling
American cars, and we thought this trend would continue well into the future," says
Gale.

The Japanese powerhouse of the '80s didn't last, but Pocari went on to become a
force in the sports beverage market.

Last year, 270 million bottles were distributed across more than 20 countries and
regions. Around the same number were distributed in Japan, according to Otsuka
Pharmaceutical, the Japanese company that makes it. Amid the pandemic, the
company donated more than 1.2 million bottles to hospitals and governments across
its markets.
Launched in 1980, Pocari Sweat was inspired by the rehydrating e�ects of an IV
solution. The ingredients include water, sugar, citric acid, magnesium, calcium and
sodium. Pocari replenishes water and electrolytes — a set of minerals your body needs
to function — lost through sweat.

The beverage is to many Asians what Gatorade is to Americans, and Lucozade is to

the British.

But, the brand, which turns 40 this year, is virtually unheard of in the West.

A drink that mimics sweat

Pocari's story starts with Rokuro Harima, an Otsuka employee who got food poisoning
during a business trip to Mexico in the 1970s.

At hospital, doctors told Harima to replenish his energy with fizzy soda drinks. But
when Harima spotted a doctor drinking from a pouch of IV solution to rehydrate
himself after performing surgery, he had an idea.
 Four Pocari Sweat facts hospitals since 1946. Harima
put two and two together:
He wanted to create a tasty,
drinkable IV.
1980 In the 1960s, he had helped
Pocari Sweat is launched in Japan. fine-tune the flavor of
Otsuka's "Oronamin C," a
1982 carbonated nutritional drink
targeted at weary
Otsuka starts exporting Pocari Sweat
businessmen needing a
to its first overseas markets in Hong midday pick-me-up. Now the
Kong and Taiwan. "king of taste," as his peers
called him, had set his sights
1990S on creating a new market in
Pocari Sweat becomes the first non- Japan.
alcoholic drink in Japan to hit a
Gatorade had been sold in
cumulative shipment value of over $1 the US since the 1960s. But
billion. in Japan in the 1970s, sports
drinks were uncharted
2020 territory.
Otsuka establishes a health beverage
Non-alcoholic carbonated
subsidiary in Mexico, the country that beverages, such as Coca-
sparked the idea for Pocari Sweat. Cola and Mitsuya Cider, and
orange and apple juices
dominated the domestic
Source: Otsuka Pharmaceutical market, according to the
Japan Soft Drink Association
(JSDA).

But as Japanese white-collar workers powered Japan's economic boom, households

gained spending power. People became more health-conscious and Coke sales
waned, according to Mark Pendergrast, the author of "God, Country and Coca-Cola."
Harima got to work.

Back in the laboratory, he and a team of researchers had discovered that the
concentration of sweat was di�erent for people doing sport compared to those just
going about their day. They wanted a drink — with properties similar to sweat — that
Researchers developed dozens of prototypes, but they all tasted too bitter. The
breakthrough came when they added a dash of citrus powder juice to their
translucent solution, eventually refining the formula to two samples with di�ering sugar
levels.

Researchers put those solutions to the test by climbing a mountain in Tokushima

prefecture in southern Japan, says Je�rey Gilbert, a spokesman at Otsuka. They
concluded that the less sugary version went better with exercise.

The formula for Pocari Sweat was born. All they needed was a name and a logo.

What's in a name?
With its literal nod to perspiration, Pocari Sweat's name has bemused many native
English speakers. The first part of its name was chosen for its sound. "Pocari" comes
o� as vaguely European and is easy to pronounce but has no meaning, Gilbert says.

As Japan absorbed Western influences in the post-World War II years, European

languages were seen as chic and exotic. English slogans adorned everything from
billboards to T-shirts, lunch boxes and pencil cases.
 A poster for the first Pocari Sweat can launched in Japan in 1980.

The word "sweat," on the other hand, conveys the drink's practical purpose.

Back in the 1980s, most carbonated and soft drinks were sold in bold red, orange and
white containers, according to the JSDA. Yet given the high turnover rate in the
Japanese beverage market, Akihiko Otsuka — then president of Otsuka
Pharmaceutical — knew he had to make a statement. Reminiscent of breaking ocean
waves, Pocari's cool blue and white cover was an outlier in terms of design.

It was a risk engineered to catch the eye of curious consumers.

Creating a new market

Pocari Sweat was not a smash hit when it landed in Japanese stores in 1980.
"Because this drink category didn't exist in Japan, people didn't know what to make of
it," says Gilbert.

It didn't have Coke's dark coloring and signature sweet fizz. Nor was it like Suntory's
energy drink Regain, which appealed to businessmen prepared to work 24-hour shifts.
Instead, Pocari Sweat promised to keep people hydrated.

Early marketing campaigns focused on the dangers of dehydration. Television

For several years, the company handed out free samples at saunas and sporting
events. Salespeople went door-to-door to promote it.

"Back then, Japan didn't have as many supermarkets or vending machines as it does
today. Shoppers bought drinks at mom and pop stores, so Otsuka made an e�ort to
reach out to people and familiarize them with Pocari's taste and function," says Kiyomi
Kai, a spokeswoman at the JSDA.

When Pocari Sweat first launched in Japan, it struggled to win over consumers.

Despite the struggle to launch, Gilbert says giving up wasn't an option. "Otsuka is very,
very sticky and persistent in what it does on both the drug and consumer side — it
goes in deep and stays there," he says.

Eventually, its e�orts paid o�. In the mid-1990s, Pocari Sweat became Japan's first
domestically produced non-alcoholic drink to hit a cumulative shipment value of over
$1 billion.

Sold primarily in hot countries across Asia and the Middle East, Gilbert says the
hydrating message behind Pocari products — which now include powder and jelly —
speak to those markets. Private vendors are selling the drink in Western nations, too.

But Otsuka never dreamed of dominating the West.

Looking to Asia
By 1983, Gatorade held 86.5% of the sports beverage market in the United States. In
Otsuka's eyes, Western markets were saturated, says Gilbert.

Otsuka had exported its IV solutions to Japan's neighbors since the 1960s, so it made
sense to ship them to locations near Japan rather than to send them via air freight to
America. Besides, the company didn't want to pay for expensive supermarket shelf
Pocari Sweat was launched in Japan as the economy boomed. Otsuka predicted that
the level of economic growth would spread across Asia.

By the 1980s, anti-WWII sentiments toward Japan, which had colonized many parts of
Asia, had gradually waned in the region. Japan was now seen as a viable business
partner.

The drink hit shelves in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 1982 and in Singapore, Bahrain,
Oman and Saudi Arabia the following year, along with a slew of other markets over the
next decades.

The strategy of investing in Asian and Gulf markets for the long haul bore dividends.

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Asian economic zone — spanning the
Arabian Peninsula to Australia — represented 50% of global GDP and two-thirds of
global economic growth, according to Parag Khanna, the author of "The future is
Asian."

The region's spending power was growing, and Pocari Sweat was well-placed to ride
the wave.

Overcoming cultural hurdles

Otsuka saw huge potential in Indonesia, a country of 273 million people, which is now
the company's biggest market outside Japan. But Otsuka knew it had to rethink its
marketing strategy for the predominantly Muslim nation.

For example, it didn't make sense to advertise Pocari Sweat to Indonesians as a

In Indonesia, people take showers instead of baths. And, as Islam forbids alcohol,
there's no Indonesian word for "hangover," says Yutaro Bando, the president director of
Otsuka's Indonesian branch, in a 2015 YouTube video.

Otsuka focused on carving out a niche in the healthcare and sporting community. But
even then, the drink only took o� after medics started using it as an emergency tonic.

#PocariSweat for HANGOVER. Aim for #BetterHealth. Choose POCARI

SWEAT. Available in stores nationwide. pic.twitter.com/jW5o8MMHRF

— Pocari Sweat PH (@PocariSweatPH) September 5, 2013

In 2010, a dengue outbreak swept Indonesia. That year, the incidence rate spiked to
over 80 people per 100,000 compared to 60 the year before.

Symptoms for dengue include vomiting, high fever and internal bleeding, in severe
cases. Patients need to stay hydrated, as that allows platelets — tiny blood cells that
help your body form clots to stop bleeding — to mature.

Spotting an opportunity in the market, Otsuka partnered with healthcare experts and
government o�cials to promote Pocari Sweat's hydrating powers. Healthcare workers
started recommending it to their patients to prevent dehydration, according to
researchers from Telkom University in Indonesia.

As a vital hydration booster, Pocari became known as a "form of first aid" — deployed
in the fight against everything from dengue fever to diarrhea.

But it didn't take long for Pocari's image to shapeshift.

Pop culture meets ion supply

From 2016, running became a popular activity among Indonesians, according to
Jakarta-based advertising agency Olrange. It partnered with Otsuka between 2015
and 2018 to produce a series of campaigns to expand Pocari Sweat's appeal.

Along with sports campaigns dubbed #SafeRunning and Born to Sweat, Olrange
leveraged Japan's pop culture to attract younger consumers.
 Trailer of Onigiri The Series

(sweat) through a lighthearted six-part friendship and adventure series

on YouTube called 'Onigiri The Series,'" says Putri Fajar.

The videos shows the young friends sharing rice balls, going to school, hanging out
and experiencing teenage life as peppy tunes play in the background.

That call to youngsters is driving Otsuka's strategy as it fosters markets at home and
abroad, according to Tomomi Fujikawa, an analyst at Euromonitor International.

Moonshot drink
Four decades ago, there were only five types of soft drinks — a category that JSDA
says includes carbonated beverages as well as teas and mineral water — competing
for space in Japan's beverage market. But the category has expanded a lot since
then.

In 2019 alone, there were 6,491 types of soft drinks on sale in Japan, and companies
introduced 1,074 new products, according to the JSDA. All of them vie for coveted
space in the nation's convenience stores and roughly 5 million vending machines, says
Kai, the JSDA spokeswoman.
 ⽇本の暑い夏を乗り切るための情報を全世界の皆さんに発信するため、初
⾳ミクが #ポカリスエットアンバサダー に就任！
スポーツで⼀層アツくなる2020年の夏を、#ポカリ と⼀緒に元気に楽しみ
ましょう！#MEIKO #ミライアカリ #富⼠葵 #YuNi
pic.twitter.com/Xksk3G1ocV

— ポカリスエット【公式】 (@pocarisweat_jp) December 20, 2019

In Japan, Pocari Sweat is stocked in convenience stores, vending machines,

supermarkets and drug stores. While ubiquity helps, Otsuka has worked hard to make
the brand relevant, say Roy Larke, a marketing professor at the Waikato University in
New Zealand.

For instance, in 2020, Otsuka recruited virtual pop star Hatsune Miku as a brand
ambassador ahead of the now-postponed Summer Olympics, to appeal to a new
generation of young people.

A Pocari Sweat store in Hong Kong.

That cycle of refreshing Pocari Sweat but sticking by its signature blue-and-white look
and message of hydration, has allowed the brand to outlast its competitors and thrive.

"Some brands are designed specifically for the convenience store market, so they
have a three-to-six month lifespan for a particular recipe, but Pocari Sweat isn't like
that," says Larke, who is also the editor of intelligence website JapanConsuming.

"It's an enduring long-term brand that Otsuka has really developed over the last 50
years, and today it's that endurance and long history in Japan that has kept it going."

CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report from Tokyo.

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