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Japanese Kissaten: The Slow Coffee Tradition

A standard Japanese dictionary defines kissaten (喫茶店) as a shop that serves tea, sweets and light meals. Writers in English use the word for Japan's old-fashioned coffee shops. Japan's official industrial classification uses it more widely: its kissaten category takes in coffee shops, cafés, music cafés and fruit parlours. This article follows the kissaten from the first coffee houses of the 1870s and 1880s to the shops that survive today.

The First Coffee Houses

Coffee was being served to customers in Japan by 1878: according to the Nipponica encyclopedia, a record shows that the Hōkōdō shop in Motomachi, Kobe, sold coffee that year and let customers drink it on the premises. The coffee house usually named as Japan's first is Kahiichakan (可否茶館, a name also read Kahii Sakan), which opened in Ueno, Tokyo, in 1888. Most accounts give the opening day as 13 April 1888; a 2021 study published by Atomi University gives 14 April. An advertisement for its opening appeared in the magazine Marumaru Chinbun (團團珍聞) on 21 April 1888. Its founder, Tei Eikei (鄭永慶), had studied in the United States, and a Japanese biographical dictionary says he went to Yale in 1874. After returning to Japan he worked as an official at the Foreign Ministry and as a teacher of English.

The shop did not last. The Heibonsha encyclopedia says it opened too early, drew few customers and soon closed, and a 2024 column gives the year of closing as 1892. No photograph of the shop was found; the National Diet Library's 2026 exhibition on coffee shows its opening advertisement and a portrait of the founder. In Japan, 13 April is known as Kissaten no Hi (喫茶店の日), Kissaten Day, after the opening of Kahiichakan. Tea houses are far older: the National Diet Library traces the tea-house business back to the Muromachi period.

The Ginza Cafés of 1911

The interior of Café Printemps in Ginza, Tokyo, photographed between 1911 and 1923: bentwood chairs and white-clothed tables beneath walls covered in handwritten inscriptions and drawings.

The interior of Café Printemps in Ginza, Tokyo, photographed between 1911 and 1923: bentwood chairs and white-clothed tables beneath walls covered in handwritten inscriptions and drawings. Photo: Unknown author / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The earliest use of the word kissaten cited by the dictionary Nihon Kokugo Daijiten is from the magazine Fūzoku Gahō in 1902. In December 1905 a Taiwan kissaten serving oolong tea opened in Ginza. Café Printemps, one of the first shops in Tokyo to call itself a café, opened in Hiyoshi-chō in March 1911. Its founder, the Western-style painter Matsuyama Shōzō, designed it with the cafés of Europe in mind. Café Lion, said to be easier for ordinary people to enter, opened in Owari-chō, Ginza, in August 1911.

Café Paulista opened its first Tokyo shop in Minami-Nabe-chō, Ginza, in December 1911; the company's own history gives the date as 12 December. Its first shop in Japan had opened earlier that year, in Minoh, Osaka. Its founder, Mizuno Ryō (水野龍), had organised emigration to Brazil, and the government of São Paulo state gave him coffee free of charge in recognition. He called it "subsidy coffee" (補助珈琲) and used it to promote Brazilian coffee in Japan. Paulista is Portuguese for "of São Paulo". According to the National Diet Library, Café Paulista eventually had 23 shops across Japan and as far as Shanghai, and laid the foundations of Japan's coffee market in the Taishō era. The Library names Printemps and Paulista among the many Tokyo shops damaged in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, and Café Paulista's own history says most of its Tokyo shops were destroyed. The company says it then withdrew from running cafés, and reopened in Ginza at its present site in 1970. In a page archived in 2021, the shop said John Lennon and Yoko Ono came for three days and nights in a row during the Shōwa era; its current site lists Lennon among its famous patrons. These are the shop's own accounts.

Cafés and Pure Coffee Houses

Café Tiger in Ginza, Tokyo, a café opened in 1924, photographed from the street between 1930 and 1935 with its name in katakana across the façade and a car at the kerb.

Café Tiger in Ginza, Tokyo, which opened in 1924, photographed between 1930 and 1935, after it was sold to Hongō Bar in 1930 and renovated. Photo: 洪洋社 / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

By the late 1920s the word kafē (カフェー) suggested waitress service and alcohol more than a place to drink coffee. In 1929 the Tokyo Metropolitan Police issued rules for the control of cafés and bars. The term junkissa (純喫茶), "pure kissaten", came into use to set coffee houses apart from cafés offering such service. The Nipponica encyclopedia describes the split as dating from the Taishō era, between pure kissaten and cafés that served alcohol and Western food with waitresses. A 2021 study from Atomi University describes Café Paulista, which had no waitresses, as a forerunner of the junkissa. After the Second World War, cafés turned into cabarets and clubs, while kissaten multiplied rapidly with economic growth from the Shōwa 30s, which began in 1955. Café Tiger, shown above, opened in Ginza in 1924 and appears in the diary of the novelist Nagai Kafū.

Music Kissaten

The front of Café Le Violon, a classical-music kissaten in Asagaya, Tokyo, with a double-bass cut-out on the wall.

Café Le Violon, a classical-music (meikyoku) kissaten in Asagaya, Suginami, Tokyo, photographed in March 2018. Photo: Eugene Ormandy / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kissaten for listening to records appeared before the Second World War. As records spread in the early Shōwa period, jazz kissaten opened that played imported jazz records rather than live music, and classical-music kissaten, later called meikyoku kissa (名曲喫茶), appeared alongside them. National Geographic dates the first jazz kissaten to the late 1920s. Their attraction was the record collection and the expensive equipment to play it, according to a 2007 history of prewar jazz kissaten by Hosokawa Shūhei. Jazz kissaten created an atmosphere for listening to records in silence, and in classical-music kissaten, too, customers were expected to keep quiet. In the 1960s modern jazz was part of a university student's education, and jazz kissaten served as schools of jazz, according to Waseda University's Haruki Murakami Library. National Geographic reported in 2026 that more than 800 jazz kissaten opened across Japan, and that about 400 remain today. House rules vary: the strictest forbid any talk, while others allow talking or whispering. The magazine also reported a surge of interest in jazz kissaten over the past decade among young record collectors and audiophiles.

Peter Cat

The novelist Murakami Haruki opened the jazz kissaten Peter Cat in Kokubunji, Tokyo, in May 1974, and moved it to Sendagaya in 1977. He wrote his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, at the kitchen table late at night after closing, and it won the Gunzō New Writers' Prize in 1979. He closed Peter Cat in 1981, when he decided to write full time. Peter Cat served coffee by day and drinks and food at night.

Lion

Lion (名曲喫茶ライオン), a classical-music kissaten in Shibuya, was founded in 1926 by Yamadera Yanosuke. It burned down in the air raids on Tokyo and was rebuilt to the same design; the present interior dates from 1950. Serai reported in 2023 that it plays one-hour "Lion concerts" at 15:00 and 19:00, and that talking and photography are not allowed. CNN described it in 2024 as one of the city's few remaining meikyoku kissa.

Violon

Violon, a classical-music kissaten in Asagaya, Tokyo, was opened by its owner, Teramoto, who built the interior and the vacuum-tube sound system himself. Serai gives the opening year as 1980, and Mynavi News as 1979. In 2023 it held a concert of SP records on the third Sunday of each month.

Brewing by Hand

Nel drip (ネルドリップ) brews coffee through a reusable filter made of napped flannel cloth. The All Japan Coffee Association describes it as a long-established method that gives a smooth, full-bodied cup. It advises keeping the cloth in water between uses, because coffee oil left on it oxidises in air. Paper filters hold back coffee oils, as a 1991 study of boiled coffee showed, and a 2020 study found that a cloth filter retains less of the oil-borne compounds cafestol and kahweol than paper. The Puerto Rican colador is also a cloth filter: a small flannel or cotton sock on a wire ring, described in Café Criollo: The Traditional Puerto Rican Brewing Tradition. The All Japan Coffee Association describes the siphon as a brewing method that uses air pressure. It was the standard method in Shōwa-era kissaten, but few kissaten use it today, according to the magazine BE-PAL in 2021. At Chatei Hatou, a Shibuya kissaten opened in 1989, the coffee is brewed through paper filters folded to each order and served in porcelain cups.

Watch: The Kissaten – Chatei Hatou | Tokyo's Best Coffee | The Barista Series (2019) — Filmic Entertainment

Sources give different brewing temperatures. The Specialty Coffee Association's current standard for home electric brewers, SCA-310-2021, sets a brewing temperature of 90 to 96 °C. The All Japan Coffee Association suggests about 95 °C, and a 2019 column in the trade newspaper Nihon Shokuryō Shimbun says 80 to 85 °C is commonly given as the right temperature.

Peak and Decline

A Doutor Coffee shop in Senbayashi, Asahi-ku, Osaka, with the chain's name on the sign and on the yellow awning, photographed at night in 2023.

A Doutor Coffee shop in Senbayashi, Asahi-ku, Osaka, with the chain's name on the sign and on the yellow awning, photographed at night in 2023. Photo: Mr.ちゅらさん / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

The All Japan Coffee Association's table of kissaten establishments in Japan, compiled from government censuses, gives these counts:

  • 1975: 92,137.
  • 1981: 154,630, the highest.
  • 1991: 126,260.
  • 2001: 88,933.
  • 2006: 81,062.
  • 2009: 77,036.
  • 2012: 70,454.
  • 2016: 67,198.
  • 2021: 58,669.

The figures to 2006 come from the Establishment Census and those from 2009 from the Economic Census. The counts follow the official classification, which includes coffee-shop chains. In 2014, 75.8 per cent of privately run kissaten were run by individuals and 24.0 per cent by companies, typified by chains, according to the Statistics Bureau. The count fell by 3,256 between 2012 and 2016, and by 8,529 between 2016 and 2021. The association's comment on the table is that the number has fallen steadily since its 1981 peak.

The trade newspaper Nihon Shokuryō Shimbun attributes the decline to rising land prices and labour costs. Reports for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare point to restaurants offering coffee, low-price chains, vending machines and convenience stores, and to coffee drinking moving to the home and the workplace. In a ministry survey of November 2013, the problems kissaten operators named most often were rising ingredient costs (50.5 per cent) and fewer customers (49.2 per cent), and 46.5 per cent said they had no successor. Doutor Coffee was founded in 1962 to roast and wholesale coffee. In 1980 it opened its first Doutor Coffee Shop, a stand-up coffee bar in Harajuku, charging 150 yen a cup when an ordinary kissaten charged 300, according to TV Tokyo. In August 1996 a large American coffee chain opened its first Japanese store in Ginza.

Kissaten Today

The shopfront of Cherry, a kissaten in Shōwa-ku, Nagoya, photographed at night in December 2021, its sign reading coffee and meals beside the name.

Cherry, a kissaten in Sakurayama-chō, Shōwa-ku, Nagoya, photographed in December 2021. Photo: 円周率３パーセント / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

At the spring 2025 meeting of the Association of Japanese Geographers, Xiao Yao and Ikeda Mariko presented a study of Shōwa-era junkissa as cultural heritage and of how they are being carried on. Craig Mod's book Kissa by Kissa (2020) follows a walk of about 1,000 kilometres along the Nakasendō, the old highway between Tokyo and Kyoto, in search of kissaten. Its first printing of 1,000 copies sold out in two days. Mod describes kissaten as places for community, connection and conversation.

Milonga Nueva, a kissaten in a narrow brick-walled alley in Jinbocho, Tokyo, its signs offering coffee, world beers and a tango collection; the sign of Ladrio hangs further along the alley.

Milonga Nueva, a kissaten in Kanda-Jinbōchō, Tokyo, photographed in January 2008 in a brick-walled alley, its signs offering coffee, world beers and a tango collection; the sign of Ladrio hangs further along. Photo: Koichi Suzuki / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Milonga Nueva, in Jinbōchō, Tokyo, was founded in 1953 and plays traditional Argentine tango rather than jazz or classical music. It left its old brick premises in December 2022 and reopened about 40 metres away on 6 February 2023. In 2025 it had about 500 tango records. Its sister shop, Ladrio, founded in 1949, was long known as a chanson kissaten and now also plays jazz.

Visiting Kissaten

Hours and house rules change, so check before travelling. The details below are from the dated sources shown:

  • Lion, Dōgenzaka 2-19-13, Shibuya, Tokyo: 13:00 to 20:00, closed 1 to 4 January and four days in summer (Serai, May 2023); no talking, photography or phone calls.
  • Chatei Hatou, Futaba Building 2F, Shibuya 1-15-19, Tokyo: from 11:00, last orders 22:00 (Sanpo no Tatsujin and Time Out Tokyo, 2023).
  • Milonga Nueva, Kanda-Jinbōchō 1-3, Chiyoda, Tokyo: from 11:30, last orders 22:00, or 18:30 at weekends and on holidays, closed Wednesdays (Sanpo no Tatsujin, 2025).
  • Ladrio, Jinbōchō, Tokyo: closed Tuesdays and over the New Year (Chiyoda City Tourism Association, undated).
  • Violon, Asagaya-kita 2-9-5, Suginami, Tokyo: 12:00 to 17:00, closed Tuesdays (Serai, October 2023); Mynavi News gave different hours in 2020.
  • Café Paulista, Nagasaki Center Building, Ginza 8-9, Chūō, Tokyo, first and second floors (the shop's own site, October 2026).

Key Facts

  • Coffee was served on the premises at the Hōkōdō shop in Kobe by 1878.
  • Kahiichakan, usually named as Japan's first coffee house, opened in Ueno, Tokyo, in 1888.
  • 13 April is known as Kissaten no Hi.
  • Café Paulista opened in Ginza in December 1911 and grew to 23 shops.
  • The term junkissa, "pure kissaten", set coffee houses apart from cafés with waitresses.
  • Listening kissaten date from before the Second World War; Lion, in Shibuya, founded in 1926, plays classical music.
  • Murakami Haruki ran the jazz kissaten Peter Cat from 1974 to 1981.
  • Kissaten establishments peaked at 154,630 in 1981 and numbered 58,669 in 2021.
  • Nel drip means brewing through a cloth filter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a kissaten? A Japanese coffee house. The official classification uses the word for coffee shops and cafés in general, while writers in English use it for Japan's old-fashioned coffee shops.

When did the first one open? Kahiichakan, usually named as the first, opened in Tokyo in 1888, although coffee was served to customers in Kobe by 1878.

Are kissaten disappearing? Their number has fallen since 1981, from 154,630 to 58,669 in 2021, and the fall was faster from 2016 to 2021 than from 2012 to 2016.

Is Lion a jazz kissaten? No. Lion, in Shibuya, plays classical music.

What is nel drip? Coffee brewed by hand through a cloth filter of flannel.

Did John Lennon and Yoko Ono visit Café Paulista? The shop says so; no independent account was found.

Sources

History

Music kissaten

Brewing

Numbers and decline

Kissaten today

Claims this encyclopedia could not source

  • That Tei Eikei studied at Yale. A Japanese biographical dictionary says so; his name was not found in the scanned text of Yale's catalogues for 1874 to 1880.
  • That he also used the name Nishimura Tsurukichi. Only Japanese Wikipedia gives it, as a name taken in 1892.
  • The exact days Kahiichakan opened and closed. Sources give 13 and 14 April 1888, and only one column gives 1892 for the closing.
  • A body that designated 13 April as Kissaten no Hi. The Japan Anniversary Association does not list it among the day's registered anniversaries.
  • A brewing temperature typical of kissaten. No source located; general Japanese guidance ranges from 80 to 95 °C.
  • That most kissaten serve Brazilian, Colombian or Ethiopian beans. No source located on what kissaten serve; Japan's largest green-coffee imports in 2025 came from Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Guatemala and Ethiopia.
  • That new kissaten openings are increasing. No source located.
  • That most foreign visitors never enter a kissaten. No source located.
  • The original government table for the 1981 peak. The figure is taken from the All Japan Coffee Association's table, which cites the Establishment Census.
  • That Café Paulista has operated without a break since 1911. Its own history says most of its Tokyo shops were destroyed in 1923 and that it reopened at its present Ginza site in 1970.

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