Tea Culture and Tea Industry in Japan

Tea plant(Camellia sinensis) is one of a very few plants containing caffeine, a kind of narcotics, originates from Yunnan in China and was utilized as a medicine at the beginning and then as a drink as well as a food. The tea was introduced to Japan from China. Japanese people well developed tea manufacturing technology to produce unique teas such as Matcha(抹茶) and Sencha(煎茶), resulting in creating a culture, Tea ceremony [Chado or Sado(茶道)].