Japan's Green Tea Exports Surged 42% in FY2025: What the Matcha Boom Means for Buyers

by Christian, founder of One with Tea, May 15, 2026

Japan's customs-cleared trade statistics for fiscal year 2025 just landed, and they tell a story anyone in the matcha trade has been feeling for two years. Green tea exports hit 13,125 tonnes in the year ending March 2026, up 42% from the previous year, with total export value rising 2.2-fold to ¥84.7 billion (Nation Thailand citing Kyodo, May 2026). Japanese press is calling it the highest in over seventy years.

That is a number that reshapes the conversation. I source matcha for One with Tea, and I have been watching the supply side for years, but the export side of the equation is the one I keep coming back to this month. Here is what the data says, why it is happening, and what it means if you are a buyer, a cafe operator, or a matcha drinker trying to read the cup.

Key Takeaways

• Japan exported 13,125 tonnes of green tea in FY2025 (year ending March 2026), up 42% year over year (Nation Thailand / Kyodo).
• Total export value: ¥84.7 billion, a 2.2-fold increase on the prior year, sourced from Japan Ministry of Finance customs statistics.
• Powdered green tea, primarily matcha, accounted for about 70% of total export volume.
• Japan also imported 5,801 tonnes of green tea (mostly from China), up 82% year over year, to stretch domestic supply.
• Top export destinations, ranked: United States, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, then the European Union and United Kingdom.
• Structural shift: tencha (the leaf for matcha) production up, sencha exports down.

The data: Japan's biggest green tea export year in over seventy years

Japan exported 13,125 tonnes of green tea in fiscal 2025, up 42% on the previous year, according to customs-cleared statistics published by the Ministry of Finance and reported by Nation Thailand citing Kyodo wire coverage. Total export value more than doubled to ¥84.7 billion, a 2.2-fold jump that pulled the average price per kilogram sharply higher.

The headline framing in Japanese press is significant. Multiple outlets, including The Japan Times, described the year as the highest export performance in over seven decades. Japan has been an active green tea exporter for generations. To see a 42% leap in a single year, on top of a multi-year upward run, is not a normal trade-cycle bounce.

This is the part of the trend that does not survive cocktail-party summary. Japanese tea exports were not flat for sixty years and then surged. They have been climbing on a multi-year upward run before this. What changed in FY2025 is the slope.

Why matcha is driving 70% of the export surge

Powdered green tea, which is dominated by matcha, accounted for roughly 70% of total export volume in FY2025 (Nation Thailand / Kyodo, 2026). That is a category share, not a growth share, but the underlying shift is sharper than the headline number suggests. Other tea varieties, including sencha, saw their exports fall.

In other words, the export market is rebuilding itself around one product. Buyers overseas are not pulling more Japanese tea broadly. They are pulling specifically matcha and, by extension, tencha, which is the shaded leaf base for matcha. Everything else is in retreat or flat.

If you have followed our prior writing on the supply chain, you already know the demand-side story. Cafes outside Japan have integrated matcha lattes into their core menus. Wellness consumers in North America and Europe have moved matcha out of specialty channels and into daily routines. For deeper context on what is happening structurally on the supply side, see our 2026 Matcha Shortage explainer and the broader 2026 Matcha Industry Outlook.

Where Japan's tea is going: US leads, then Southeast Asia, Taiwan, EU+UK

The export destinations, ranked, reflect where matcha is being absorbed fastest. The United States is the largest market for Japan's green tea exports in FY2025, followed by Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and the European Union and United Kingdom (Nation Thailand / Kyodo, May 2026). That rank order matters.

North America has been the visible market for matcha's cultural push, but the speed of Southeast Asian growth tells a different story. Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam have all been building specialty-tea retail at a pace that does not show up in English-language coverage. Taiwan is its own story. It already has a sophisticated tea culture, and Japanese matcha sits inside a different shelf there, closer to a luxury imported good than a wellness commodity.

The EU and UK rank lower than the headline North American story but matter for a different reason. Regulatory environments in Europe push transparency in sourcing. That is going to shape what kind of matcha can enter the trade legally in the next few years. If you are reading product labels, that is the trend to watch.

Tencha up, sencha down: a structural shift, not a market wobble

Inside the 42% headline is a quieter but more important shift. Tencha production in Japan is rising, and sencha exports fell on the year. Farmers are pivoting fields and processing capacity toward shaded tea (the input to matcha) and away from the unshaded steamed-leaf market.

This is what a structural shift looks like. When we visited Japanese producers in spring, the conversation was already pointed this direction. The cultivation calendar, the shade-cloth orders, the steaming-machine retrofits all signal where the leaf is going. A factory that retools for tencha does not pivot back next season. The capital choice is made for years.

For drinkers, this means the catalog of Japanese green tea is narrowing at the export edge. Sencha will still be available, but the share of attention, capital, and cultivar selection is shifting toward shaded categories. You can read this as good news if you drink matcha and worrying news if you depend on a specific Shizuoka or Yame sencha you imported last year.

Why Japan is importing 82% more tea from China

The piece of data that surprised me most is on the import side. Japan imported 5,801 tonnes of green tea from China and other countries in FY2025, up 82% year over year ( For the structural breakdown, see our Japan vs China matcha production explainer.Nation Thailand / Kyodo, 2026). For a country that produces world-leading green tea, that is a striking number.

The simplest reading is that domestic Japanese supply cannot keep up with the matcha-driven export pull. Tea destined for the Japanese domestic market, vending machines, bottled tea, mass retail, is being supplemented by imports. That frees up more high-grade Japanese leaf for the export trade. It is a quiet reorganization of the supply chain, hidden behind the headline export number.

For consumers, the practical implication is sourcing transparency. If you are buying matcha or any Japanese green tea overseas, the label has to tell you where the leaf was grown. Vague phrases like "Asian-sourced" or "blended origin" are not acceptable at the premium tier. We covered this in detail in our counterfeit matcha guide.

What this means for cafe operators and matcha buyers

If you run a cafe, a yoga studio, or a wellness brand, the FY2025 export data is the case for tightening your matcha sourcing this year, not loosening it. Here is the practical read from the floor.

First, the price you pay for genuine ceremonial-grade matcha is going up structurally, not cyclically. A 42% volume surge against a 220% value surge means the average price per kilogram climbed sharply. Premium grades climbed even faster. We laid out the pricing math in why matcha prices are rising in 2026.

Second, supplier consolidation is accelerating. Cafes that have been buying from three or four secondary suppliers are starting to lose grade consistency, because those suppliers are themselves stretching thinner inventories across more buyers. The cafes that hold quality this year are the ones with one or two direct relationships at the producer or importer tier.

Third, this is the year to lock cultivar and grade language into your purchasing. "Ceremonial grade" by itself is no longer a defensible spec. You need cultivar (Saimidori, Asahi, Goko, Yabukita), origin (Uji, Nishio, Yame, Kagoshima, Shizuoka), and harvest tier (first flush vs second flush). If your supplier cannot answer all three, the leaf is probably not what the label says.

For operators thinking about this seriously, our 2026 wholesale guide for cafes walks through the spec language to ask for, and our wholesale program is built around the same principles.

What we are watching next

The next data point that matters is the August or September first-flush recap from the Global Japanese Tea Association. That report tells us how the spring 2026 harvest went, which we will combine with the FY2025 export data to project the next twelve months of pricing and availability.

The Kyoto first-harvest tencha auctions in particular set the high-end pricing tone for the year. The 2025 data we tracked, ¥14,541 per kilogram for first-flush tencha, was already a record. If the spring 2026 numbers print higher, the global wholesale market resets again.

This is the work we do at One with Tea. Read the numbers from the ground, taste with the producers, source for the cafes and drinkers who want the cup to mean something. Our organic matcha is the product we built on these principles. The numbers, this year and next, are why we keep doing this work the way we do.

How much did Japan's green tea exports grow in FY2025?

Japan exported 13,125 tonnes of green tea in fiscal 2025 (year ending March 2026), up 42% year over year. Total export value rose 2.2-fold to ¥84.7 billion, according to Ministry of Finance customs-cleared trade statistics. Japanese press described it as the highest export performance in over seventy years.

Why are Japanese tea exports surging?

The growth is almost entirely driven by global matcha demand. Powdered green tea, primarily matcha and the tencha leaf it is milled from, accounted for about 70% of total export volume in FY2025. Other categories like sencha saw their exports fall on the same year.

Where is most of Japan's green tea going?

The largest export destination was the United States, followed by Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and the European Union and United Kingdom. North America has the visible matcha-cafe trend, but Southeast Asia is the fastest-growing destination, and Taiwan absorbs Japanese matcha as a premium imported category.

Why is Japan importing more tea from China?

Japan imported 5,801 tonnes of green tea in FY2025, up 82% year over year, mostly from China. Domestic Japanese tea production cannot meet both surging export demand and the domestic market for bottled tea, vending machines, and mass retail. Imports fill the gap for lower-tier domestic use while premium Japanese leaf goes to export.

What does this mean for matcha prices in 2026?

Wholesale matcha prices are rising structurally, not cyclically. A 42% volume surge combined with a 220% export-value surge means average price per kilogram climbed sharply in FY2025. Top-grade ceremonial matcha is climbing fastest. Buyers should expect continued upward pressure through 2026 and lock in supplier relationships now.

How can I tell if the matcha I am buying is authentic Japanese matcha?

Ask the supplier for cultivar (Saimidori, Asahi, Goko, Yabukita), specific origin (Uji, Nishio, Yame, Kagoshima, Shizuoka), and harvest tier (first flush or second flush). "Ceremonial grade" by itself is no longer a defensible spec given the import-rebalancing trend. Vague labels like "Asian-sourced" should be treated as a warning.

More on the OWT matcha trade beat: 2026 Industry Outlook · 2026 Matcha Shortage Explained · Why Matcha Prices Are Rising · Counterfeit Matcha guide · Best Matcha for Cafes.

Christian, founder of One with Tea

For a visual zoom-out, see the interactive global matcha production map.

Wondering if you missed the wave? See is the matcha boom slowing down?

For the latest on tencha pricing right now, see our breakdown of the 2026 Kyoto tencha opening auction and what it means for the rest of 2026.