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Photos: Japan pins hope on global matcha craze to save its tea industry

From matcha ice cream to cake and chocolate, producers of traditional Japanese green tea are capitalising on growing global interest in its flavour -- even as demand for the drink declines at home. In Japan, the consumption of green tea leaves for drinking dropped from 1,174 grammes per household in 2001 to 844 grammes in 2015, according to the latest government data -- a trend insiders put down to a more westernised diet.

Updated on: Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM IST

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Tea farmer Yoshio Shoji checks a net over a matcha tea field in Fujieda, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Tea growers like 67-year-old Yoshio Shoji are jumping on the bandwagon to grow matcha leaves -- as they command a higher price than “sencha”, needle-shaped leaves used to make the traditional Japanese drink. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Tea farmer Yoshio Shoji checks a net over a matcha tea field in Fujieda, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Tea growers like 67-year-old Yoshio Shoji are jumping on the bandwagon to grow matcha leaves -- as they command a higher price than “sencha”, needle-shaped leaves used to make the traditional Japanese drink. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Farmers harvest matcha leaves in Fujieda. The matcha leaves sell for 3,100 yen ($30) per kilo on average, compared to 1,400 yen for sencha, according to the Japanese Association of Tea Production. But Shoji said tea fields are shrinking as farmers get too old for the physically demanding work. “The oldest one is over 80. There are not many successors,” he told AFP gazing out over his tea fields. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Farmers harvest matcha leaves in Fujieda. The matcha leaves sell for 3,100 yen ($30) per kilo on average, compared to 1,400 yen for sencha, according to the Japanese Association of Tea Production. But Shoji said tea fields are shrinking as farmers get too old for the physically demanding work. “The oldest one is over 80. There are not many successors,” he told AFP gazing out over his tea fields. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Tea leaves were first brought from China to Japan in the early ninth century and the tea was treated more as a medicine at that time. Matcha developed in 16th-century Kyoto when tea master Sen no Rikyu established the traditional tea ceremony known as “chanoyu.” Sencha was invented two centuries later and its manufacturing method spread quickly. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Tea leaves were first brought from China to Japan in the early ninth century and the tea was treated more as a medicine at that time. Matcha developed in 16th-century Kyoto when tea master Sen no Rikyu established the traditional tea ceremony known as “chanoyu.” Sencha was invented two centuries later and its manufacturing method spread quickly. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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A man working at a Japanese tea factory in Fujieda. Now, sencha accounts for half of 80,242 tonnes of green tea produced annually in Japan, compared to 3.3% for matcha tea leaves -- although production of the latter is growing. Japanese traditionally drink green tea with rice but are doing so less as the diet becomes less dependent on the grain. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

A man working at a Japanese tea factory in Fujieda. Now, sencha accounts for half of 80,242 tonnes of green tea produced annually in Japan, compared to 3.3% for matcha tea leaves -- although production of the latter is growing. Japanese traditionally drink green tea with rice but are doing so less as the diet becomes less dependent on the grain. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Japanese tea are dried at a factory in Fujieda. Japan exported more than 5,000 tonnes of green tea -- mainly to the United States -- last year, 10 times more than two decades ago. “The number of Japanese who regularly drink tea is decreasing while there are more Japanese who enjoy various kinds of food, so tea doesn’t sell like before,” said 55-year-old Shigehiko Suzuki, a tea producer and exporter. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Japanese tea are dried at a factory in Fujieda. Japan exported more than 5,000 tonnes of green tea -- mainly to the United States -- last year, 10 times more than two decades ago. “The number of Japanese who regularly drink tea is decreasing while there are more Japanese who enjoy various kinds of food, so tea doesn’t sell like before,” said 55-year-old Shigehiko Suzuki, a tea producer and exporter. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Bags of dried Japanese green tea leaves at a tea factory in Fujieda. In 1998, Suzuki’s company Marushichi Seicha started making powdered matcha green tea -- traditionally made using a bamboo whisk in a tiny room. The firm now exports 30 tonnes of green tea to the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Bags of dried Japanese green tea leaves at a tea factory in Fujieda. In 1998, Suzuki’s company Marushichi Seicha started making powdered matcha green tea -- traditionally made using a bamboo whisk in a tiny room. The firm now exports 30 tonnes of green tea to the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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A woman drinking Japanese tea at a tea salon in Tokyo. Traditional Japanese tea also suffers from something of an image problem, argues Suzuki, as it is considered the preserve of older generations. “It is mainly the over-60s who drink tea. The younger people are, the more they drink coffee... Tea is no longer attractive to customers. Our priority is to boost its appeal,” he said. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

A woman drinking Japanese tea at a tea salon in Tokyo. Traditional Japanese tea also suffers from something of an image problem, argues Suzuki, as it is considered the preserve of older generations. “It is mainly the over-60s who drink tea. The younger people are, the more they drink coffee... Tea is no longer attractive to customers. Our priority is to boost its appeal,” he said. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Some tea rooms are trying to modernise to pull in younger punters. At Tokyo Saryo, a stark-white zen-style space in a quiet neighbourhood, “barista” Yuka Ihara brews Japanese tea in special glass cups. “There’s the cultural tea ceremony and practical bottled tea. But something in-between, like a cafe where customers can enjoy tea in comfortable surroundings, didn’t really exist before,” Ihara said. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Some tea rooms are trying to modernise to pull in younger punters. At Tokyo Saryo, a stark-white zen-style space in a quiet neighbourhood, “barista” Yuka Ihara brews Japanese tea in special glass cups. “There’s the cultural tea ceremony and practical bottled tea. But something in-between, like a cafe where customers can enjoy tea in comfortable surroundings, didn’t really exist before,” Ihara said. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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Mikito Tanimoto, who founded Tokyo Saryo in 2017, said Japanese tea is regarded as “unfashionable.” But despite innovative efforts, there is widespread scepticism that the decline can be stemmed. “The Japanese sell kimonos and tea ceremonies -- the cultural side -- overseas but in the meantime, farmers are crying” because they cannot survive, said Stephane Danton, the French owner of a Japanese tea shop in Tokyo. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

Mikito Tanimoto, who founded Tokyo Saryo in 2017, said Japanese tea is regarded as “unfashionable.” But despite innovative efforts, there is widespread scepticism that the decline can be stemmed. “The Japanese sell kimonos and tea ceremonies -- the cultural side -- overseas but in the meantime, farmers are crying” because they cannot survive, said Stephane Danton, the French owner of a Japanese tea shop in Tokyo. (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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At Suzuki’s tea shop in central Japan, adorned with a traditional “noren” drape, customers are flooding in but more to scoop up gelato or cake than to sip the bright-green tea. And while Suzuki has enjoyed some success in expanding his matcha products, he doubts whether the industry can handle global competition. “Japan is no longer the only country making it. We’ll face global competition.” (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

Updated on Aug 29, 2019 4:22 PM

At Suzuki’s tea shop in central Japan, adorned with a traditional “noren” drape, customers are flooding in but more to scoop up gelato or cake than to sip the bright-green tea. And while Suzuki has enjoyed some success in expanding his matcha products, he doubts whether the industry can handle global competition. “Japan is no longer the only country making it. We’ll face global competition.” (Charly Triballeau / AFP)

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