Matcha made in Tokyo: Overseas tea lovers inspire a production shift

Food & Beverage

Metropolitan government to support local farmers who cater to changing tastes

If the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is successful, overseas matcha enthusiasts will help maintain the capital’s threatened tea fields. (Tokyo Metropolitan Government)

TOKYO — On Tokyo’s urban fringe, orderly rows of tea bushes are increasingly giving way to housing lots as farmers grow old and Japan loses its taste for sencha green tea. It is a trend that the metro government hopes to arrest by betting on another kind of green tea, matcha, whose popularity is booming overseas.