Coffee Can Be Grown in Japan! First Batch of Japanese-Domestic Coffee Beans Debuts!

Growing coffee locally has been a pursuit that several generations of Japanese people have continuously strived for. Due to various factors such as terrain and climate, Japan's local natural environment is not suitable for coffee cultivation. During winter, it becomes too cold, making it difficult for coffee trees to survive. Even if they do survive, they cannot reach the flowering and fruiting stage. This has led Japanese researchers of coffee cultivation to turn to other places for planting, such as Taiwan, China.

Although they have continuously stumbled in local coffee cultivation, they have not given up because of it! Instead, they have constantly searched for regions with relatively mild climates. For the problem of excessive cold in winter, they have also adopted numerous methods of cold avoidance, striving to create a "climate-friendly for trees" environment for the coffee trees to grow...

The heavens reward the diligent! They finally succeeded in growing coffee trees, and they even bore fruit! Recently, Yamako Farm located in Okayama City, Japan, announced the news that their coffee trees have successfully flowered and borne fruit. They stated that the coffee cherries are still in the ripening stage, and it is estimated that by February this year, they will be able to harvest the first batch of locally grown coffee beans in Japanese history!

With the success of this harvest, the person in charge of Yamako Farm has also planned a "Japan Organic Coffee Project" for local Japanese coffee. They stated that this project will provide coffee seedlings and cultivation technical assistance to those who want to grow/research coffee cultivation locally in Japan, while also recruiting more technical talents to devote themselves to the farm's coffee cultivation.

Yamako Farm's Coffee Cultivation Journey

Okayama City is located in southern Japan, a region with a warm climate and long sunshine hours, therefore it is known as the "Land of Sunshine." Yamako Farm was not initially researching coffee cultivation. At first, they wanted to grow tropical crops such as pineapples, mangoes, papayas, and bananas locally in Japan, so they introduced greenhouses. After their research, they actually succeeded in growing papayas and bananas. With this successful experience, the farm owner turned their attention to local coffee cultivation, which had failed many times before.

- Kosuke Yamamoto and his coffee trees

Mr. Kosuke Yamamoto, the farm owner, stated that Japan, as the fourth largest coffee-consuming country, has in-depth research on coffee roasting and brewing, but no one has yet succeeded in researching coffee cultivation. Therefore, after successfully growing papayas and bananas, Mr. Kosuke Yamamoto introduced Typica variety coffee trees and planted them in the farm's greenhouse. Since coffee trees are plants that do not like long-term direct sunlight, and the Okayama region is an area with relatively long sunshine hours, the greenhouse roof is equipped with a large number of solar panels. On one hand, this can provide electricity for the greenhouse, and on the other hand, it can provide shade for the coffee trees.

Scientific Approach to Coffee Cultivation

For the successful cultivation of local Japanese coffee beans, the greenhouse is only an auxiliary tool; the main reason is their years of research on coffee cultivation. In addition to the most basic cultivation research on coffee varieties, climate, environment, water quality, soil, and other agricultural crops, they were so meticulous that they even researched different varieties of earthworms. Different varieties of earthworms have varying degrees of impact on the soil, changing its pH level. And the soil's pH level affects the growth of coffee cherries and the expression of coffee flavor.

Future Prospects

Mr. Kosuke Yamamoto hopes that through this success, more business people will see the value of Japanese-grown coffee and that cultivation techniques can be extended to rural areas of Honshu. If more people can participate in local coffee cultivation projects, coffee farm management will become a business that can create new industries and ensure human resources.

This batch of coffee beans from the Okayama region will be exhibited at the Kansai Agricultural Week in March 2022 and the Tokyo Agricultural Week in October 2022. The farm will also be open to the public in the future, allowing more Japanese people to learn about local coffee cultivation.

However, in general, places beyond the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (the coffee cultivation belt) and places with frost are not suitable for coffee cultivation. Therefore, it is still quite difficult for Japan to want to grow coffee on a large scale! After all, no farmer wants to do a losing business.

But this is just a side note. Perhaps on some day in the future, we will still have the opportunity to have a taste of Japanese-grown coffee beans.

Image source: Yamako Farm official website

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