In Japanese, "soft drink" is usually used to mean any non-alcoholic drink, rather than just carbonated drinks specifically. So orange juice etc. will be considered a "soft drink" and will be listed on menus under "soft drink".
I've never had 炭酸飲料 come up in everyday conversation, but I think it's pretty common.
To add to what @arcticfeather said, 炭酸飲料 is rarely used in conversation, but it's the drink type written on carbonated drinks' labels.
Yeah, I don't think there's any word that perfectly captures the exact meaning of "soda" in English. ソフトドリンク includes non-carbonated beverages, and 炭酸飲料 isn't a word used in casual conversation. The word ソーダ also doesn't quite mean the same thing, it seems. I'm not sure exactly what qualifies as ソーダ, though; I asked a native speaker and they said that to them, メロンソーダ is a ソーダ but Coca Cola isn't.
It's also not a perfectly defined word in English: http://www.popvssoda.com
:)
Well, different regions use different words (I use "pop" myself), but as far as I'm aware they all refer to the same general concept: a sweet, non-alcoholic, carbonated beverage.
Thanks for the replies everyone! I find it interesting that so many things can be called a "soft drink" in Japan, such as orange juice. Good to know! I'm glad I asked. :)
Soda
Is this the most common way to say "soda" in Japanese?
I learned the word 炭酸飲料 today, which means "carbonated drink", and I thought, in a natural conversation in Japanese do people actually use this word?
So I found the word ソフトドリンク as well. Of course it is possible that both words are used just as commonly as another (or even another word for "soda" I don't know about yet), but I was wondering if in fact one is used predominately over the other or not, or if one even sounds weird to say over the other in conversation. Thanks for any help!