Japanese Tea Report – July 2024

By SimonaTea Reports

Japanese tea consumption has been sluggish for a while, and a number of tea farmers quitting tea production has been growing. Makinohara City in Shizuoka Prefecture – one of the largest tea areas in Japan, has been focusing on growing lemons on the abandoned tea farmlands to make it a speciality product of the prefecture, and in just a year since 2023 lemon farmland has increased sixfold. On the other hand a regional post-ferment tea that has nearly gone extinct – Ishizuchi kurocha, is being revived by a local resident group in Ehime Prefecture. It will even appear at the Expo 2025 in Osaka.

Large tea companies in Japan have been also trying to respond to various challenges including climate change. ItoEn has recently changed label printing method for its bottled barley tea to water-based printing that compared to the conventional printing method is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 14%. In addition to that, ItoEn has also teamed up with Nissin in sharing transport for delivering tea leaves and cup noodles between Aichi and Shizuoka. It will help to address the driver shortage issue as well as reduce the CO2 emissions another 19%. Coca Cola has also signed a partnership agreement with cities in Shizuoka Prefecture to conserve water resources.

Namekawa City in Toyama Prefecture has installed disaster response vending machines in all elementary and junior high schools in the city. The machines are stocked with water, tea, sport drinks and others, and in case of a disaster will dispense them for free. In Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture Cafe de Monk was launched recently to provide support to those who experienced the Noto Earthquake at the beginning of the year by sharing tea and listening to their stories. People who experienced real hardship said they felt better after spending time at this makeshift cafe.

In Kyoto a prefectural tea competition was held in July. 263 teas were submitted in 4 categories and the first place in each category was won by producers from Uji City for tencha, Kyotanabe City for gyokuro, Ayabe City for kabusecha, and Minamiyamashiro Village for sencha. Ujitawara Town in Kyoto Prefecture has also appointed its first tea technician in 15 years and his main role will be to support the local tea farmers.

A tea sauna or “chauna” has recently opened in Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Instead of pouring water on the hot sauna stones, hojicha from Yama is used instead, which allows the visitors to relax even more. In Saitama a new sembei (rice crackers) was introduced that uses disqualified hojicha leaves to reduce food waste. Perhaps it is time to notice and appreciate hojicha more.

 

The article is based on Japanese media articles:

 

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