Video Series
"Tea Regions of Japan"

Introduction

Tea has been a part of Japanese culture for centuries. After it was introduced to Japan about 800 years ago tea spread across the whole country. Today it is produced in many regions of Japan. However, most tea production is in rural areas, where the populations are aging and decreasing rapidly. It brings a real worry that in a few decades some of these tea producing areas may even disappear completely.

Video Series

"Tea Regions of Japan" is a video series, that tries to capture the current state of Japanese tea and show the beauty of the tea regions here. It is focused on 5 prefectures:

Kyoto – the origin of Japanese tea traditions

    (featured tea producing areas: Uji, Ujitawara, Wazuka, Minami Yamashiro, Ayabe)

Shizuoka – the capital of Japanese tea

    (featured tea producing areas: Honyama, Kakegawa, Makinohara, Tenryu, Kawane)

Kagoshima – the fastest growing tea region

    (featured tea producing areas: Minami Kyushu, Shibushi, Soo, Kirishima, Yakushima)

Saitama/Tokyo – the most urban tea region

    (featured tea producing areas: Iruma, Sayama, Tokorozawa, Higashi Yamato)

Each prefecture is introduced in a 1h video program. It includes a short summary video of the whole prefecture and 4-5 videos providing a deeper look into the different tea producing areas there. Across the 5 prefectures the series has explored a total of 19 tea producing areas, which were will be presented through the eyes of the local tea producers.

Participation

The video series ‘Tea Regions of Japan’ started in September 2022 and were  published on YouTube. The videos of the series were released weekly between September and December. If you would like to watch the series keep check our youtube channel.

Special for our members, we also hold a monthly online pre-release screening, where participants were able to see the whole 1h program of each prefecture ahead of the release schedule. During these events tea producers featured in the videos also joined us for a live Q&A session, that gave a chance to speak with them directly and learn more about their tea regions. The events were free to join, but to keep them conversational and personable, the participation was limited to our members (Tea Catalysts and Tea Fellows).

Event Schedule

Here you can find the schedule for the pre-release screening events. 

September - Kagoshima

  • AM session: 10am-12pm on 3rd September 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)
  • PM session: 4pm-6pm on 3rd September 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)

October - Shizuoka

  • AM session: 10am-12pm on 8th October 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)
  • PM session: 4pm-6pm on 8th October 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)

November - Kyoto

  • AM session: 11am-1pm on 12th November 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)
  • PM session: 5pm-7pm on 12th November 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)

December - Saitama/Tokyo

  • AM session: 11am-12:30pm on 17th December 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)
  • PM session: 5pm-6:30pm on 17th December 2022 (Japan time, UTC+09:00)

 

Publicity

If you would like to help us spread the word about this project, here are some images that you can use for social media and other channels. Please also add hashtags #tearegionsofjapan #gjtea . Thank you for your support!

Organisers

The video series "Tea Regions of Japan" is created by the Japan Tea Central Council PIIA and the Global Japanese Tea Association. 

(公益社団法人日本茶業中央会, 日本茶業体制強化推進協議会, 一般社団法人国際日本茶協会)