No, I can't site it, I didn't save where I read it, sorry. I don't know if it's their official policy, but they've said it in an offcial capacity. But the fact that homebrew supplies are sold at one of the most popular stores in the country and there are at least three homebrewing stores online that give instructions on how to brew shows how serious it is. But that being said, it is still illegal technically so don't go flashing it around. Definitely don't sell it, and don't even have friends pay you for the ingredients, and you'll be fine.
Yeah, the samples thing is the key. They can easily come in to your house and get samples if they suspect anything, but they won't, and that's what they have said. They said it's unrealistic for them to use their resources to do that, and that they realize that controlling the % is too difficult and so enforcing a strict 1% is not really something they are going to spend time doing.
I don't know what you mean about sharing my beer with black and white students. If by that you mean do I share it with the students that are cops? Yeah, I only taught one student that was a cop where I had the chance to share but she thought homebrewing was interesting and she really enjoyed my beer. But obviously I knew her and didn't mention it until I knew her. But all my co-workers thought it was fine also, and they were pretty traditional. My boss thought it was rude to walk and drink water at the same time so that shows you something about that.
That sucks that you got a ticket jaywalking, I've literally never seen that. Even in Japan when I jaywalked in front of a cop with some friends all they did was use their speaker to tell us not to do it.
So basically brew on kamiru, it'll be fine. Sakeland has cheap supplies, Advanced Brewing has better quality, but the Malt Shop is the best. Umeshuu jars are fantastic for fermenting small batches ini. I did a BIAB setup.
Will it be legal? It's got a looooooong way to go and the Japanese are not the quickest in changing laws (see the recent court case about tattoos) Plus the big breweries don't want to see it happen and there's no real demand for it to be legalized by the public since its a pretty foreign concept there.
Microbreweries basically just became legal there in the past 20 years and technically there's still big barriers for beer breweries starting up, most microbreweries technically brew happoshu because it's easier to get a license for and has cheaper taxes. So, sadly I don't expect it to change anytime soon.
Hokkaido will be good to brew in since A: There's a good craft beer scene there with Ezo Brewing and Beer Cellar Sapporo being two of my faves. and B: The temperature is much more mild, I was in the Kansai area and summers were impossible to brew in. It's easier to warm up a fermenter than it is to cool it down in my experiences. Feel free to PM me with any questions, I spent the last few years homebrewing there and can answer any questions you may have about where to go (Daiso is really handy for lots of stuff) and anything like that. I don't know if there is a homebrewing club there but if you look on Facebook you can find some in other areas and they are useful for answering questions.
I recommend smaller batches just for the ease and cost and space challenges. I did 8 liter batches when I was there. I'm currently back in the US studying but I plan to return in about a year and a half. Have fun, and like I said, feel free to PM with any questions! 頑張って!
so Everything should be ok ? 
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