Japanese Bottled Water

[Big Booger]

I have tried several types of bottled water, from Aquafina, Deerpark, etc.. in the US, to Sapporo Nihon meizan no tennensui, Asahi tateyama..., etc... to France based Volvic and one of those offbrands sold at Carrefour that is basically Volvic in a different label...

And my determination is that the Japanese water is tap... all the Japanese brands I have tried taste like tap water. Today I and my wife tried a taste test and I couldn't tell the difference between the tap water and the Japanese Sapporo bottled water....

Are there any standards? Tests? I mean when I drink volvic *which I think is pretty good for a pet bottle mineral water, I can tell a huge difference in the cleanliness of the water... With the Japanese water it's got like an extremely mild sulfur taste or something.

Could it be that the waters are just different types like hard and soft water? Or is it that Japanese water has different minerals?

I swear though that the tap and bottled water taste differently to me... compared to foreign bottled waters like Evian, Crystal Geyser, Volvic, etc....

[IkemenTommy]

Are there any standards? Tests?

Whatever's on sale

[hakuman]

I know in Canada there are no regualtions on bottled water, and some of it is really bad. Dont know about Japan though.

What I do know is that bottled water tastes a hell of a lot better than the tap water in Yokohama.

[Sarutaro]

Yes, bottled water can be just tap water. In fact, there are several brands that are just that. Coca-Cola for example are notorious for selling tap water on many markets (Dasani, BonAqua).
What you have to look for to be sure you get authentic ground water are the words "(natural) mineral water". These are words that are connected with certain legal requirements in most countries, including Japan. For example, such a water has to come from an underground source.
If the label just says something like "bottled", "pure" or "filtered" you can almost be certain that it originates from the municipal water supply. This doesn't mean that it is bad, though. It has at least gone through some kind of sterlization.