Japanese Green Tea & Radiation

First and foremost, please understand your concerns about radiation in Japan are our concerns, too. In fact, probably much more so because we work, live and have family here. We are avid drinkers of our organic Japanese teas and care very much about the safety of our teas, so we are very unlikely to put ourselves at risk let alone our customers.

Green Tea Contamination...

Here at Yuuki-Cha we have always known that tea bushes are very susceptible to contamination whether that be from direct applications of pesticides, loading up soils with chemicals, industrial pollution, radioactive fallout from a nuclear power plant, or any other form of contamination. That is one of the reasons why we have always worked directly with tea growers that we know are cultivating green tea honestly, consciously, and sincerely using only organic and traditional methods of Japanese tea farming.

Unfortunately, when it comes to radioactive contamination being spread from an unexpected nuclear disaster there is nothing any tea grower can do to prepare for it. In the case of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant disaster, the nuclear fallout from it did reach some tea regions in eastern and central Japan. However, with the exception of Sayama and Shizuoka, most of the tea regions that have experienced contamination of their 2011 tea harvests are very minor tea regions that most green tea drinkers are very unlikely to come across.

The Good News...

Fortunately, and most importantly, contamination of green tea has NOT been nationwide in Japan. In fact, apart from Shizuoka all of the tea regions where we usually source our organic green teas from are actually in the western or southern prefectures of Japan which have not experienced any problems with radioactive contamination of Japanese green tea. That includes Kyoto and the Prefectures on Kyushu Island including Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Kumamoto and Fukuoka.

Therefore, we will continue selling organic green teas from the following regions:
Kyoto, Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka.

None of our organic growers in the above regions have experienced any contamination of their 2011 organic green tea harvests. We have even conducted independent tests on our actual teas from both Kyoto and Miyazaki to confirm this. Therefore, the organic green tea we source from those regions are as perfectly safe as always, so we will continue to offer great examples of high quality organic teas from those regions in 2011!

As for Shizuoka, where some contamination of green tea did occur, we'll take a look at the situation again in the Spring of 2012.

Thanks for reading and we hope you'll continue to support the great efforts of our organic tea growers here in Japan!

Other Pages...

Tea Region Map – Location of tea regions where our teas are cultivated, processed, and packaged.
Test Results – Test results of some of our green teas.
2010 Tea List – List of 2010 harvest teas still available at Yuuki-Cha.

If you have any questions regarding this page, please Contact Us and we will be happy to assist you.