Drunkenness and Confucianism

I believe you're right about the low tolerance for alcohol among east-asians.

However accurate estimation of degrees of drunkenness are made difficult by the social necessity to act more drunk than one is.

In those societies where Confucianism requires respect for authority and the subordination of individual dissent to group-harmony, social drinking accompanied by an exaggeration of ones drunkenness allows the individual to blow off steam and save-face by being excused due to drunkenness. Not only does this provide an escape vent for frustration, but its one of the few ways in which important criticisms by an underling can be addressed to their superiors without challenging propriety or appearing disrespectful.

This is part of the process by which consensus is gauged and built behind the scenes so that the official discussions are a formality which publicly reaffirm group-harmony and identity.

Dante