At formal occasions the drinking etiquette in Japan seems on the surface to be incredibly polite. It is rude to fill you own glass instead you wait until somebody else offers to fill it for you, at which point you take a sip to make some room in the glass. Offer the glass out with one hand placed flat underneath. Should you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation that you need your glass to be filled and nobody seems to have noticed (not all that likely), the easiest way to get attention is to offer to fill up somebody else's glass. This will inevitably lead to them offering in return to fill yours up. Feeling like you have had one too many, perhaps its time to go around the room and politely offer drinks out to people.
It seems a little rude to refuse when somebody offers. It may easily transpire that there are people offering to fill your glass up almost constantly. You could soon find yourself chugging back the drinks much quicker than you would drink if you were drinking at your own pace.
This gentleman from yesterdays event highlights the dangers lurking behind this outwardly incredibly polite drinking etiquette (note the perfectly full glass beside him, he probably never even finished off even one glass).
