The number that explains the place
| Aichi Prefecture, 2024 | Tonnes | National rank |
|---|---|---|
| Crude tea, all types | 554 | 14th |
| Tencha | 428 | 4th |
Aichi Prefecture, citing the National Tea Producers’ Federation survey, 2024 crop year.
Four hundred and twenty-eight tonnes out of five hundred and fifty-four. Roughly three quarters of all the tea Aichi grows is destined to be ground into powder. Nishio City itself, which the prefecture names as its main tencha area alongside Toyota and Shinshiro, puts the figure at over 96 percent.
Most tea regions in Japan make sencha and also make some tencha. Nishio does the opposite, and has done for long enough that the town’s calendar runs on it: schoolchildren pick leaf as a work-experience lesson in May, and tea ceremonies are held in nurseries and schools.
Nishio is not a tea region that also makes matcha. It is a matcha region that barely makes tea.
The rules are stricter than Uji’s
This is the part that surprised me, and I suspect it will surprise most readers outside Japan.
Uji tea, under the definition its own industry council settled on in 2004, may be grown in any of four prefectures — Kyoto, Nara, Shiga or Mie — provided a Kyoto company refines it inside Kyoto. The proportions are not published.
Nishio no Matcha is a registered regional trademark, held by the Nishio Tea Cooperative. Its definition is narrower on both ends: leaf grown in Nishio City or Anjo City, processed into tencha, refined and stone-milled in the same area.
| Where the leaf may be grown | Where it must be finished | |
|---|---|---|
| Uji tea | Kyoto, Nara, Shiga or Mie | Kyoto, by a Kyoto company |
| Nishio no Matcha | Nishio City or Anjo City | The same two cities, including the milling |
Kyoto Prefectural Tea Industry Council, 2004; Nishio City, on the registered trademark.
I want to be careful with this, because the obvious conclusion is the wrong one. It does not make Nishio matcha better than Uji matcha. The two names are doing different jobs. Uji is the older name and covers a whole tea culture, including sencha and gyokuro, with a definition built to accommodate a shortage of Kyoto-grown leaf. Nishio names one product made in one place. A narrow definition is easier to write when you only make one thing.
But if what you want to know is where the leaf grew, the Nishio name tells you and the Uji name does not. That is worth knowing before you read a tin.
Where it sits nationally
Fourth is fourth, and the gap above it is large.
| Tencha, 2023 | Tonnes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kagoshima | 1,585 | 38% |
| Kyoto | 970 | 23% |
| Shizuoka | 505 | 12% |
| Aichi | 428 | — |
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2023 crop year. Aichi’s figure is the prefecture’s own for 2024, so the years do not match exactly.
Japan made 4,176 tonnes of tencha in that year, the highest on record and nearly three times what it made in 2008. So Nishio accounts for something around a tenth of the national crop — a real share, and a long way from the twenty percent that still circulates online. That figure was true when the country made half as much tencha as it does now.
There is one more oddity. Since the 2020 crop year, the ministry’s crop statistics have surveyed eight prefectures as the main tea producers: Saitama, Shizuoka, Mie, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Aichi is not on that list. Fourth in the country for tencha, and not counted among the main tea prefectures — which is exactly what you would expect of a place that grows one thing and almost nothing else.
Why the leaf grows well there
Nishio City is clear about the reasons, and they are physical ones.
The soil. The Inariyama hillside, on the left bank of the Yahagi River, is a well-drained layer of red earth mixed with sand. The city says this suits the glossy leaf that tencha requires. Around 100 hectares of tea sit on that hillside; across the city as a whole it comes to roughly 200.
The river. The Yahagi keeps a steady humidity over the fields — not a dramatic factor, but a constant one, and constancy is what a shaded crop wants.
Shading is the other half. Tencha is grown under cover for weeks before picking, which holds back the bitterness and pushes the leaf towards sweetness and a deeper green. Nishio uses the frame-built covering method — screens on a raised structure over the field rather than cloth laid on the bushes — and finishes with stone milling, both of which are written into the trademark.
The name protects a process, not just a place: grown here, made into tencha here, and ground on a stone mill here.
What this means when you buy
Nishio matcha is often the matcha inside things. Much of it goes into confectionery, ice cream and drinks rather than into a bowl. That is not a criticism — it is what a region does when it produces one ingredient at scale and has spent decades supplying manufacturers.
If a tin says Nishio no Matcha, the leaf grew in Nishio or Anjo. That is what the trademark means. It is a narrower promise than most place names on tea make.
It will not tell you the cultivar or the grade. No place name does. Ask the seller.
→ The rest of this series: Uji, Mori, Yame, Kagoshima and Ise.
What I take from it
I went into this expecting Nishio to be the smaller, plainer version of Uji. It is smaller. It is not the same kind of thing at all.
Uji is a name with four centuries behind it, attached to a culture as much as a crop, and its definition had to stretch to fit a shortage. Nishio is a name attached to a single product, in two cities, made one way. One name grew outward until it needed rules to hold it together; the other was written narrowly from the start.
Neither is more honest than the other. But they are not interchangeable, and a tin that says Nishio is telling you something a tin that says Uji is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Nishio matcha from?
Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, on the left bank of the Yahagi River. The Inariyama hillside holds about 100 hectares of tea, and the city about 200 in total.
Does Nishio matcha have to be grown in Nishio?
Yes. The registered trademark requires leaf grown in Nishio or Anjo, processed, refined and stone-milled in the same area.
How much matcha does Aichi produce?
428 tonnes of tencha in 2024, fourth nationally, out of 554 tonnes of tea in total — 14th for tea overall.
Is Nishio bigger than Uji for matcha?
No. Kagoshima led with 1,585 tonnes in 2023, then Kyoto at 970 and Shizuoka at 505. Nishio’s distinction is concentration, not volume.
Why is Nishio suited to tencha?
Well-drained sandy red earth on the Inariyama hillside, and steady humidity from the Yahagi River.
Sources: Aichi Prefecture, citing the National Tea Producers’ Federation survey, 2024 crop year; Nishio City; Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, “Current situation and issues in the tea industry and tea culture,” November 2024; MAFF crop statistics.
