UCC Coffee Museum

Audio exhibition guide

104:Chronology of Japan’s coffee history

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It is said that coffee arrived in Japan around the year 1700, from Dutch traders operating in Dejima, Nagasaki. Records show that Japanese people of the day felt coffee was bitter and unpleasant, and it failed to take hold in Japan until the end of national isolation. Coffee started to spread throughout Japan in the Meiji period, together with a yearning for Western culture. Japan's consumption of coffee has been consistently increasing since the establishment of the first coffee shop in Japan in 1888 (except for during the Second World War). In fact, you may be surprised to learn that Japan is now the world's fourth-largest consumer of coffee.

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