About Sponsor:

Asahi Breweries, Ltd. is a leading brewery and soft drink company based in Tokyo, Japan. The company has a 40% share of the Japanese beer market. The company's primary beer, from 1957 through the late 1980s, was Asahi Gold (overtaking Asahi Draft, its original formula, which remains in production). In 1987 it introduced Asahi Super Dry, which initiated the Japanese craze for dry beer; this led in turn to Asahi's dramatic turnaround in business performance, and its surpassing of former second ranker Sapporo Brewery in sales and profits.