Kidsbeer, a Japanese soft drink bottled and formulated to look like beer, may soon be available throughout Europe, but watchdogs of underage drinking say they will fight any effort to ship it to the United States.

Kids Beer is a Japanese cola that masquerades as an alcoholic drink.

The drink, which comes in a brown bottle and is advertised with the slogan "Even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink," is lager-colored and foams like beer, but tastes like cola.

Introduced two years ago, it is sold by more than 150 restaurants and supermarkets in Japan, according to Tomomasu, the small bottler that makes it. Beer is widely available in vending machines in Japan, where the legal drinking age is 20.

It would be cool if this made it to the U.S., it would go great with the candy cigarettes that are still on sale in this country.