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Regions
Plant the same cultivar in two places and you get two different teas. The name of the region tells you a surprising amount about what is in the packet. Start with the map to place them, then read them one by one.
Shizuoka
Japan's largest tea region by planted area — roughly 40% of the national total. It led the country in output too for decades, until Kagoshima overtook it in the 2024 crop. Within the prefecture the styles split sharply: mountain districts like Kawane and Honyama make aromatic light-steamed tea, while the Makinohara plateau is deep-steamed country. It is also where tea from the whole country is traded and blended, so its finishing craft runs deep.
Kagoshima
The other of the two giants alongside Shizuoka, and first in the country by output for the first time on record in the 2024 crop — largely on the back of a shift into tencha, the leaf that becomes matcha. The warm climate brings some of the earliest new tea in Japan. Fields are largely flat and heavily mechanized, which keeps output high. It also plants a much wider range of cultivars than most regions, so single-cultivar teas — Yutakamidori, Asatsuyu — are easy to find.
Kyoto (Uji)
The name most associated with gyokuro and tencha, the raw material for matcha. Shade growing was developed here. Total output is modest, but its share of the high grades is not. It also has its own bancha tradition — kyo-bancha, where steamed large leaves and stems are dried without rolling and then heavily roasted for a smoky character.
Fukuoka (Yame)
Highly regarded for gyokuro, particularly tea shaded the traditional way with rice straw over a frame — honzu — which is made in small quantities and known for its density. Matcha production here has been growing.
Mie
Third in the country by output (2024 crop), yet rarely named on the packet. The north of the prefecture is one of the country's main sources of kabusecha; the south leans to deep-steamed sencha. Sold under the name Ise-cha.
Aichi (Nishio)
A major matcha region, specialized in tencha. As well as drinking grades, it supplies much of the culinary matcha that goes into sweets and drinks. The soil and climate along the Yahagi river are considered well suited to tencha.
Saitama (Sayama)
Close to the northern limit for commercial tea. The cold thickens the leaf, and a characteristically heavy final firing — sayama-biire — builds a full, strong cup. An old tea-picking song sums the country up: color from Shizuoka, aroma from Uji, and for taste, Sayama.
Saga (Ureshino)
Tamaryokucha country. Finished without the shaping stage, so the leaf stays curled and looks nothing like needle-shaped sencha. Both steamed and pan-fired versions are made; the pan-fired carries a distinctive roasted note.
Miyazaki
Sencha and tamaryokucha, and also one of the few places making kamairicha — pan-fired green tea. Almost all Japanese green tea is steamed, so pan-fired is genuinely rare. The mountain districts of Gokase and Takachiho are the centers.
Nara (Yamato)
Held to be one of the oldest tea-growing areas in Japan. Output is small, but the cool highland climate produces good sencha and kabusecha, sold as Yamato-cha.
Kumamoto
Tamaryokucha and pan-fired tea. Kumamoto keeps a wider range of processing than most of Kyushu, with both steamed and pan-fired production still in use.
Niigata (Murakami)
Generally called the northern limit for tea grown as a commercial crop, though smaller gardens survive further north in Akita and Iwate. The bushes winter under snow, so the growing season is short and the leaf grows thick.
Kochi
Mountain sencha, and also goishicha — a lactic-fermented tea that sits well outside the green tea category and is still made today.
Nagasaki (Sonogi)
Centred on Higashisonogi, on Omura Bay. Nagasaki was one of the prefectures the national crop survey covered until the 2024 reporting change narrowed it to eight, so recent statistics no longer carry a figure for it. What it makes is mostly steamed tamaryokucha, which differs from sencha in both shape and mouthfeel.
Ishikawa (Kaga)
Output is small, but the region is known for kaga bocha, a hojicha of its own. It roasts stems rather than leaf, and roasts them lightly, so the cup is paler than ordinary hojicha and the aroma arrives differently. In Kanazawa it is an everyday drink.
Tokushima (Awa)
In the mountains of Shikoku they make awa bancha, a post-fermented tea. The method has nothing to do with green tea: the leaf is lactic-fermented. In March 2021 the technique was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.
Gifu (Mino-Shirakawa)
Mountain country along the Hida river, centred on Shirakawa town and Higashi-Shirakawa village, where the tea is sold as Shirakawa-cha. The altitude and the swing between day and night temperatures push picking late and give the tea its aroma.
Shiga (Asamiya)
A plateau region around 400 m up, centred on Asamiya in Shigaraki. Output is small, but the name has long been listed among Japan's noted teas. It is often called one of the country's oldest tea gardens — an account handed down rather than one that can be checked.
Shimane (Izumo and Matsue)
Small as a growing region, dense as a drinking one. Matsue keeps tea ceremony close to daily life and is known for how much matcha and wagashi it gets through. The Izumo area also carries botebote-cha, a tea of the common people rather than the tea room.
Toyama (Asahi)
In the Hirudani settlement of Asahi town, a post-fermented tea called batabata-cha is still drunk. It belongs to the furicha tradition — a dark, post-fermented tea whisked to a foam — and takes its name from the sound of the whisking.
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