While travelers to Japan typically dream of green tea and sake, coffee lovers from around the world are also starting to take note of Japan’s booming specialty coffee scene.
To take us deeper into the world of third wave coffee in Japan, we spoke with Tokyo-based American Eric Tessier. Tessier runs Tokyo Coffee, and is a great resource on the history and current trends of specialty coffee culture in Japan – not to mention great recommendations on where to go for a cup of coffee in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya.

(c) Streamer Coffee Company
Coffee in Japan: A Brief History
The history of coffee in Japan goes back further than you’d think. When Japan isolated itself from 1638-1858 (a period called sakoku), foreign merchants? access to Japan was strictly regulated. On the tiny island of Dejima, in Nagasaki, European merchants drank coffee, though it did not yet catch on among Japanese people. When sakoku ended and gave way to the Meiji restoration, coffee gradually began to be imported, with Tokyo’s first coffee shop apparently opening in 1888. World Wars I and II slowed coffee imports down, but in the 1960s it became fashionable, and today Japan is among the world’s largest importers of coffee, bringing in US$1.4 billion worth in 2014 alone.
Coffeehouse Nishiya (c) Eric Tessier
You can get coffee almost anywhere in Japan, from big chains like Doutor (not particularly recommended!) and Starbucks (a good place for Wi-Fi in Japan), to the millions of ...