Current Status of Tea Cultivation and its Prospects in Japan
Introduction Tea Camellia sinensis (L.) O.Kuntze is one of the most important cash crops in the warm southwestern areas of Japan.Tea seeds were originally imported from China by Buddhist monks in the 12th century, and since then there has been development of its cultivation and the technology involved in tea manufacturing.Most tea in Japan is manufactured as the green tea Sencha that was developed in the 18th century.After the Meiji revolution (1868), tea was one of the most important primary export commodities for earning foreign currency and, at its peak, over 20,000 tons of Japanese green tea was exported;however, this has currently dropped to about approximately 2,000 ton/year.The area under tea cultivation in Japan is now approximately 43,000 ha with approximately 83,000 tons of green tea produced per year (Fig.l), whereas black tea production amounts to only 2,000 tons/year.The production of Sencha (Fig.2) is gradually decreasing;however, the production of the green tea Matcha (Fig.2) is increasing because of international demand.
Katsuyuki Yoshida
NARO Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Makurazaki Kagoshima 898-0087, Japan
国际会议
International Tea Symposium 2014(ITS 2014)(国际茶叶学术研讨会)
杭州
英文
109-115
2014-09-10（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）