Green Tea Day in Japan Date in the current year: May 2, 2025

Tea is an extremely popular beverage made from the leaves of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis), which is native to East Asia and cultivated in tropical and subtropical climates, primarily in Asia and Africa. There are at least six main categories of tea, depending on how the tea leaves are processed: white, yellow, green, oolong, black, and post-fermented (dark).

Green tea is the least processed of all teas: the leaves are neither withered nor oxidized. It is also the oldest known type of tea: until the mid-13th century, all tea was what we now call green tea. Since then, other types of tea have developed in China, but the Japanese have remained loyal to green tea: all commercial tea produced in Japan today is green tea. The main difference between Chinese and Japanese green tea is that in China the tea leaves are usually pan-fried after plucking, while in Japan they are steamed.

There are several types of Japanese green tea depending on the method of cultivation and the time of harvest. For example, the first tea plucked early in the season, before the main harvest, is called shincha. Praised for its delicate flavor, shincha is very expensive because it is harvested in small quantities during a limited window of time (from early April to early May).

The most popular type of green tea in Japan is called sencha, which accounts of about 80% of all tea produced in Japan. It can be mixed with roasted, popped brown rice to make genmaicha. A lower-grade green tea, plucked from the same plants as sencha, but later in the season, is called bancha. Tea stems, stalks and twigs left over from the production of sencha are used to make kukicha tea. Bancha or kukicha tea can be roasted over charcoal in a porcelain pot to make hōjicha.

Growing in the shade changes the characteristics of the tea leaves, giving them a brighter green color due to high chlorophyll content and a stronger umami flavor due to a high content of amino acids. The plucked and processed leaves of shade-grown tea, called tencha, are ground into fine powder known as matcha. Gyokuro tea is shaded for three weeks before harvest, and kabusecha tea is shaded for only one week before harvest.

Japanese Green Tea Day was established in 1990 by the Japanese Tea Industry Central Association. Its date, May 2, was chosen from special seasonal days in the traditional Japanese calendar, called zassetsu. It corresponds to Hachijū hachiya (literally “the 88 night”), which falls 88 days after Risshun – the first day of spring. Hachijū hachiya is closely associated with the beginning of the tea harvest season, especially in some regions of Japan, and with the end of the shincha harvest.

Japanese Green Tea Day should not be confused with National Matcha Day in the United States. Both holidays are celebrated on May 2 to coincide with Hachijū hachiya, but National Matcha Day is dedicated to a specific type of green tea. Japanese Matcha Day is celebrated on February 6.