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The story
Amid a global matcha boom, matcha production in China is rapidly expanding. TV Asahi’s “Morning Show” (aired September 18, 2026) cited a People’s Daily report stating that China’s 2025 matcha output topped 12,000 tons, accounting for roughly 70% of world production — up from under 4,000 tons in 2020, a jump to about twice Japan’s output in just five years. The program also highlighted vendors marketing their matcha using the name of Uji, Kyoto’s famous matcha-growing region, prompting commentator Tamakawa Toru to remark, “Once something becomes known worldwide, don’t you think it’s a pathetic country that just copies it?” In the 5ch thread that followed the broadcast, criticism of China’s opportunistic marketing mixed with pushback noting that “matcha originally came from China in the first place” — turning the discussion into something livelier than simple China-bashing.
September 19, 2026
Behind the global matcha boom, matcha production and sales in China are expanding rapidly. TV Asahi’s “Morning Show” (aired September 18, 2026) covered the issue of vendors marketing products using the name of Uji, Kyoto — Japan’s famous matcha-producing city.
The program introduced a long-established matcha shop in Kyoto bustling with foreign tourists. Amid this, it reported that China’s matcha production is becoming a threat, citing a People’s Daily report stating: “China’s 2025 matcha production topped 12,000 tons, accounting for roughly 70% of global output, making China the world’s largest matcha producer.” Production, which stood at under 4,000 tons in 2020, reportedly reached about twice Japan’s output by 2025.
Source: j-cast.com / Read the original article here
What people said
Aren't Chinese people even a little embarrassed?
Better get your bivouac gear ready
matcha-flavored snacks and ice cream
taste absolutely disgusting
True that — Hatori Shinichi's Morning Show has kept its high ratings for years thanks to Tamakawa's popularity lol
If you'd said matcha originated in China, fine, but it's not something to condemn them for
Matcha originated in China. Don't you even know that?
but in the Meiji era, samurai who'd lost their jobs moved into tea cultivation, and with technical innovation
tea became so accessible that everyone could enjoy good tea easily — even served free at diners
The wabi-sabi aesthetic and the tea-ware culture, that part Japan created
Even whisking powdered tea into a drink was a method developed over there
Japan is the one that industrialized it, preservation included, so basically every product beyond just drinking it plain originated in Japan. Kind of like ramen
though at its core it's absolute pro-China cheerleading
even though it has nothing to do with Japanese tea ceremony, it's just powdered tea
If it makes money, anything goes — that's just business as usual for that country
Same story as those formaldehyde-laced vegetables
Matsushita Electric got called a copycat electronics maker too, once upon a time
These guys don't have any real convictions to begin with
you're the ones who went and cut down
precious, irreplaceable old tea trees
just for development
so maybe get a little smarter, please
Most of the awful store-bought stuff uses low-grade Chinese matcha that has basically no flavor or aroma at all
Stop slapping the word "matcha" on garbage and selling it just because the name moves product
The tea from back then and modern matcha are completely different things
Color, aroma, method — genuinely nothing alike
As a tea enthusiast myself, I'm fine with it getting cheaper
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Matcha itself is a drink that came to Japan from China, and as several posters in the thread pointed out, it’s true that the culture of whisking powdered tea originated in China. On the other hand, it was Japan that developed the processing techniques that improved shelf life, formalized it into the tea ceremony, and drove mass production for confectionery and beverages — much of the “matcha” brand image now circulating worldwide was built through developments that originated in Japan. What’s actually at issue here isn’t a debate over origins, but the fact that China rapidly expanded production from under 4,000 tons in 2020 to over 12,000 tons in 2025 (about 70% of global output), and that vendors have even begun selling products under Japanese regional names like Uji. Thread opinions split between the “China is the origin” camp and the “Japan did the mass production and branding” camp, but both are simply true and aren’t really in conflict. On the quality front, some noted that “cheap Chinese matcha lacks aroma” — it’s easier to make sense of if you treat the expansion in volume and the guarantee of quality as separate issues.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “Tamakawa Toru Criticizes China — On the Matcha-Boom Copycat Marketing, “Don’t You Think It’s a Pathetic Country That Just Copies It Once It Becomes Known Worldwide?”“.
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