In the West, coffee is seen as a symbol of alertness and drive. In Japan, it serves a different purpose: a sanctuary, a quiet retreat from the chaos of personal life.
In the popular imagination, Japan is most often linked to the tea ceremony, the refined custom of drinking matcha. It’s easy to assume every Japanese person carries the quiet composure of a culture steeped in centuries of tea rituals.
Yet behind this traditional façade lies a modern, urban society, where coffee, particularly in spaces known as kissaten, has been gently woven into the fabric of everyday life in a subtle but distinct way. While the Western café may conjure images of energy and motion, the Japanese kissaten offers something altogether different: a place of quietude, set apart from the rush of society. It reveals the contrast between the individual and the collective, between a slow, intentional existence and the velocity of industrial life.
Read more: From North to South: A journey of cultural discovery through desserts
In her book Coffee Life in Japan, Merry White observes:
“The café is … a safe place to be private in public when privacy itself can be socially problematic.”
(The coffee shop is a quiet haven to retreat from the crowd, even when that desire for solitude might be seen as socially uncomfortable.)
In 2013, Helena Grinshpun published a thoughtful piece in the Journal of Consumer Culture titled Deconstructing a Global Commodity: Coffee, Culture, and Consumption in Japan. Her writing affirms that Japan’s third wave of coffee isn’t replacing the kissaten—it is building on it. She notes:
“Japan’s third-wave cafés are not mere imports; they are intensely localised, borrowing both from global style and kissaten discipline.”
(Third-wave coffeehouses in Japan are not simple imitations of the West; they are deeply rooted in local culture, blending a global sensibility with the quiet rigour of traditional kissaten.)
AloJapan.com