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 experienced contamination of their 2011 tea harvests beyond the safety limits are very minor tea regions that most green tea drinkers are very unlikely to come across.
The Good News
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. That includes Kyoto and the Prefectures on Kyushu Island including Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Kumamoto and Fukuoka.
None of our organic growers in those regions <strong>(Kyoto, Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, and Fukuoka)</strong> have reported contamination of their organic green tea harvests. Independent, approved, and legal radiological testing conducted on many of their actual teas unequivocally confirmed this. Therefore, the organic teas 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.
Regarding The Situation In Shizuoka
As for Shizuoka, where some contamination of green tea did occur in 2011, we took the decision, for the safety of our customers, not to sell either 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 harvested teas from there. We'll only resume selling teas from Shizuoka once we can confirm their genuine safety.
Other Useful Pages
- Yuuki-Cha Radiation Test Results - Test results of our teas along with certificates.
- Japan Tea Region Map - A map of the regions where our teas are cultivated, processed, and packaged.
Thanks for reading and we hope you'll continue to support the great efforts of our organic tea growers here in Japan!