He also made a bet few others did – on organic matcha. Demand has been growing rapidly.
“Last year, we exported 55 tonnes of matcha. The year before, it was 35 tonnes,” Hattori said, adding that he has already received orders totalling 100 tonnes this year.
Unlike in Uji, Hattori has no shortage of land to grow tea. As older farmers retire without successors, idle fields are giving him room to expand.
“The field I own is about 12ha currently. My goal is to acquire 150ha,” he said.
“I am receiving requests from 50 countries and regions. To be able to respond to demand, I need to constantly double production. Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep up.”
The shift taking place in Hattori’s fields is playing out across Japan.
But as tencha cultivation grows, sencha has moved in the opposite direction.
Over the past decade, sencha production fell by more than a quarter, from over 49,000 tonnes in 2015 to about 36,500 tonnes in 2025.
The decline is rippling through the wider tea industry.
Yoriyuki Nakamura, director of the Tea Science Center at the University of Shizuoka, said some small and medium-sized teahouses have already collapsed.
“The price of sencha started to rise last year. It’s rising this year too,” he said. “The issue is – will consumers still buy it?”
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