Editing Pocari Sweat (section)

== History ==
Pocari Sweat was launched in 1980 in Japan by Rokuro Harima, an Otsuka Pharmaceutical employee who came up with the idea after observing a doctor drink [[Intravenous therapy|IV solution]] to rehydrate.<ref name="Jozuka2020">{{cite news |last1=Jozuka |first1=Emiko |title=The 'Sweat' you drink: Inside the meteoric rise of Asia's answer to Gatorade |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/01/business/japan-pocari-sweat-branding-hnk-intl-dst/index.html |access-date=23 October 2020 |work=CNN |date=3 August 2020}}</ref> Harima had taken a trip to the hospital after getting [[diarrhea]] during a business trip to Mexico, and wondered if a drink could provide both the water and nutrients he needed to recover.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ryall|first=Julian|date=2019-11-30|title=The Pocari Sweat story: from odd name to iconic sports drink|url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3039792/pocari-sweat-how-iconic-sports-drink-huge-asia-became-one|access-date=2021-05-03|website=[[South China Morning Post]]|language=en}}</ref>

Wary of [[Gatorade]]'s dominance of the United States market, Pocari Sweat focused on expansion into Asia and the Middle East. In 1982, it was exported overseas for the first time, to Hong Kong and Taiwan, followed the next year by Singapore, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia. By the mid-1990s, Pocari Sweat had become Japan's first domestically produced non-alcoholic drink to ship over $1 billion in product.<ref name="Jozuka2020"/>