Sapporo is marking 150 years since it became Japan’s first beer brand with a manga-themed marketing push, and in Malaysia, Carlsberg Malaysia has built the local version of that campaign around limited-edition manga cans and an in-person activation letting fans turn their own photo into a manga-style portrait. The campaign, first reported by The Star, ties Sapporo’s actual brewing history to Japanese comic art rather than treating the two as separate marketing tracks.
The Can Itself
The centerpiece of the campaign is a limited-edition Sapporo can illustrated by Japanese manga artist Hiroki Ishizawa. The artwork features Seibei Nakagawa, the man credited with founding Sapporo in 1876, rendered in the same bold black-and-white manga style used across the rest of the campaign, alongside imagery referencing the brewery’s early history in Hokkaido. Shoppers can pick up an eight-can promotional pack that includes an exclusive 150th anniversary glass, which is shaped and etched with a design inspired by Mount Yotei, the mountain near Sapporo’s original brewery site.
The “Create Your Manga Legacy” Activation
Alongside the cans, Sapporo built a photo booth-style activation letting visitors upload a photo of themselves and receive back a manga-style illustrated portrait in the same art style as the can design, complete with a QR code to scan and download the result. It is a straightforward but effective way of getting the brand’s manga art in front of people who would otherwise just walk past a can on a shelf, and it fits the same idea driving the can itself: pairing Sapporo’s actual brewing pedigree with a visual style that resonates well beyond craft beer circles.
Why a Beer Brand Is Leaning on Manga
Carlsberg Malaysia managing director Stefano Clini framed the push as a response to how Malaysian consumers are shopping now, saying local drinkers are “increasingly drawn to premium brands that offer a strong identity, authentic story and experiences that feel meaningful.” Sapporo is Japan’s oldest beer brand, and this kind of campaign lets the company lean on that history without it just being a fact printed on a label. It is also a notable moment for the brand internationally: Sapporo has been in the news for supply-side reasons too, and we covered Sapporo’s move to shift some of its North American production from Canada to the US after tariffs hit earlier this year, a very different kind of story about the same 150-year-old brand.
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Sources
- The Star (Malaysia), “Manga-Inspired Beer Cans Showcase Japanese Craftsmanship,” September 18, 2026
- Sapporo Breweries, 150th anniversary campaign site
