More than an hour before Nakamura Tokichi Honten tea shop opened, dozens of people lined up along Uji main street - a small city along Kyoto, where green tea hills covered the ancient, peaceful scene. When the door opens, each person can only buy a small box of metal matcha powder - a souvenir that tourists from all over the world are looking forward to.
Matcha in Uji is the best in the world, said Sam Giordano, a tourist from New York, while waiting for his turn to buy. "I didn't buy it as a gift, but because I needed to work this dish. After buying here, I will go down to the street to buy more at other shops that open later."
To produce more matcha, farmers need more tencha - a type of tea leaf specially grown to form powder. Tencha comes from the same plant as Sencha, a Japanese daily green tea, but is cultivated and processed differently: The leaves are covered in the sun for a few weeks before picking to keep the color dark green and the umami flavor cool. It is this process that creates a unique flavor and makes matcha a "high-class" tea, more expensive and more difficult to produce.
The scene of people lining up in Uji is just a slice of the "matcha fever" spreading throughout the world - where fine green tea powder from Japan has become a new symbol of health, sophistication and fashion.
Global "matcha" fever
Never before has matcha been as attractive as it is today. The type of tea powder that was once associated with solemn tea ceremony now appears everywhere - from matcha latte, ice cream, cookies to Kit Kat green tea flavor.
This explosion was driven by eye-catching blue on social media, the trend of living well after the pandemic and the wave of travel back to Japan. Matcha is no longer a drink of tea enthusiasts, but has become a familiar dish on the menu of Starbucks or coffee shops in Bangkok, New York and Paris.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, the export of green tea in powder form in 2024 will reach 27 billion yen (about 177 million USD), an increase of 75% compared to the previous year and three times higher than in 2019. In the first seven months of 2025, matcha export turnover exceeded the whole of 2020. "We cannot keep up with demand. All of our annual supplies have been sold out, said Kazuhiko Nakajima, international sales director of Ito En, Japans largest tea supplier.
In tea growing areas, the price of Uji leaves harvested by machine increased threefold in just one year, to more than 14,000 yen per kg. Many people call this a "matcha ball", but for farmers, it is a rare opportunity.
Tea growers in the midst of a new wave
Among the tea trunks in Shizuoka, Jiro Katahira - a 41-year-old farmer - said that every week he receives emails from around the world, even from Benin, a country he has to look up maps to get to know. "I only produce on a small scale, I cannot do it in large numbers. But everyone wants to buy, he shared.
This year Katahira only sold 75kg of matcha, but the profit was enough to help him pay off the debt in the next few years and invest in more machinery. But behind that joy is anxiety: The number of tea farms in the region has decreased from 40 to 6 because the elderly retire without successors. The average age of Japanese farmers is now 69. Im like a Shizuoka pandas rare and easy to extend, he joked.
Japan's tea output has fallen from 96,000 tons in 2008 to 74,000 tons in 2024. Meanwhile, the demand for tencha - the raw material for making matcha - has increased sharply, forcing many farmers to switch to growing tencha to catch up with this "green storm".
Manufacturing plants are also expanding their capacity. Kawasaki Kiko - Japan's largest tea processing chain supplier - said the number of machines sold has increased by 5 times compared to 2020. The government supports up to 50% of the cost for each new line to increase productivity and Mechanization.
However, automation cannot completely replace humans. Many steep hills are still difficult to mechanize, and rural population continues to decrease rapidly. New planting also takes at least 5 years to harvest. When supply is limited, many processing companies have to close. According to Teikoku Databank, in just the first 7 months of 2025, 11 tea businesses went bankrupt - a record number in the industry.
Green tea - choose growth or tradition
In the midst of that picture, large corporations still see opportunities. In the famous advertisement, baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani drank a sip of green tea, the sky suddenly lit up, then turned out to say: "To be a better version of myself, there are things I would never change: My green tea drink".
Ito En - the company behind the Oi Ocha brand - aims to expand from 40 to 60 countries by 2029, towards 100 countries by 2040. We want green tea to have a place on the world shelves like Coca-Cola, Nakajima said. Matcha is more accessible than traditional green tea, he said: Matcha is like cocoa - bitter if drunk alone, but great when combined with chocolate or sugar.
But that ambition has to pay the price. The conversion of sencha to tencha fields has caused the price of tea leaves to trip, forcing large corporations to sign long-term contracts, paying higher prices to keep raw materials. Japan aims to export 5,000 billion yen of agricultural products by 2030 - in which matcha and green tea are the spearhead. However, retail prices also increased as well: only bottled Oi Ocha tea increased by 11% in 2025.
Not everyone is excited about this speed. Many people only think of latte matcha or candy, but do not understand the meaning of tea, said Katahira, looking out at the fields. "The more we do it, the less the quality. If it continues like this, the tea here is meaningless.
Toru Nanami, director of Hamasa-en tea retailing company, said that the tea industry needs to "open the door" instead of closing it. He called on foreign investors to contribute capital to restore abandoned agricultural land, in exchange for stable matcha purchases in 5 years. Preserving tradition is important, he said, But if the change is not accepted, Japanese tea will have a hard time competing globally.
Amid the debate, the wave of matcha is still rolling. People still line up in Uji, still take photos of a green matcha latte cup under the morning sunlight, still find the umami flavor of Kyoto in every small sip.
As for people like Katahira - farmers in the middle of the transition period - matcha fever is both a lucky thing and a test. Matcha is now a fine left-hand job, he confided, but what I want is still to make a real cup of green tea - something that carries both the art and the soul of Japan.
