'Japanese tea' city hopes heritage to help restore production

Currently, tea leaves officially permitted for use in Uji Tea are grown only in the four prefectures of Kyoto, Shiga, Nara and Mie, and they are grown entirely covered by a specially-made net to protect them from direct sun light so that they can produce enough teanin, a kind of amino acid found in green tea, to make them taste better.

In addition, most of the leaves are picked up by hand by experienced farmers, who can instantly identify the best parts of the plant during the harvest period before summer, according to the Tea Production Division of the city.

However, the total cultivated area of tea tree has shrunk from about 160 hectares in 1960 to some 80 hectares in 2012, mainly due to urbanization.

As to the reason for Uji Tea's declining popularity, Iwamoto said that the spread of plastic bottles has discouraged people from making tea in a kettle and that they seem to prefer using coffee to welcome guests to the city. "We face a critical moment where we are passing on the tea culture in its home in Uji City, which is being pressed to take a unique measure to promote its tea production in conjunction with this week's completion of the repair work at the temple. That's the idea suggested by mayor,"Iwamoto said.

Celebrating the resumption of public admission to the city's landmark temple, local agricultural communities anxiously await the final approval of the draft and hope the mayor's idea will attract more people to taste the tea and help boost its production.