Hiroaki Kitagawa of Kaneka Kitagawa Seicha during the JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA interview

Featured in JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA: An Interview with Hiroaki Kitagawa

On 5 October 2026, JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA — the Shizuoka Tea Branding Project led by Shizuoka Prefecture — published an interview with Hiroaki Kitagawa of Kaneka Kitagawa Seicha, together with a video, as volume 4 of its interview series Tea Diversity Shizuoka.

Titled “The Appeal of Ochanoma: Where People, Place, and Time Come Together Over Tea”, the interview starts from an idea that runs through all of our work: the same tea tastes different depending on who you share it with, when, and where. Topics include:

  • More than 100 years of tea making in Kanaya, Shizuoka, mainly as an OEM producer for tea shops and retailers across Japan
  • Shizuoka’s finishing craft — sorting, cutting, roasting and blending — which turns raw tea (aracha) from growing regions across Japan into a finished cup
  • Working across the traditional line between tea merchants and growers
  • Tea Station, our workplace tea service, with teas grouped by moment: Refresh, Relax, Focus, Energy and Premium
  • “BEYOND MATCHA”, our approach to sharing Japanese tea in New York

About JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA

JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA is Shizuoka Prefecture’s initiative to redefine the value of Shizuoka tea and present it to the world as a global brand from Japan. Creative director Kashiwa Sato joined as general producer in 2025, and growers, tea merchants and others across the tea industry are building the project together.

The name joins “JAPAN TEA” — the words printed on ranji, the colourful export tea labels used from the Meiji era onward — with “SHIZUOKA”. The logo reinterprets the ranji style for today, with Mount Fuji and the tea fields below it as its motif.

Teas carrying the JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA name must use 100% Shizuoka first-flush leaf and be 100% finished within Shizuoka. Alongside leaf quality, the project puts Shizuoka’s finishing expertise front and centre — the same craft Hiroaki Kitagawa talks about in the interview. He also serves on the project committee.

Read and watch

Our thanks to everyone at JAPAN TEA SHIZUOKA.

Looking for Shizuoka-finished teas for your business? Browse our wholesale range →

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