Japan Navigator

In Japan, food is judged on its health properties, real or imagined, and fads of such foods are fed by media frenzy. It is only a short time ago that all Japanese were eating blueberries for better eyesight and natto to slim down. Drinks, especially of the sort sold in 350 or 500 cc pet bottles in convenience stores, do not fare differently. Many teas make claims about bringing down the level of body sugars or helping you get slimmer…

The huge Japanese health drink market

Contrary to the US, Japan’s $48-billion-a-year soft-drink industry consists for a large part of sugarless teas (with ot without health claims) rather than of sodas and other unhealthy products. This has been ascribed to the graying of the population, but I have my doubts: most buyers seem salarymen and young people, at least when you look at the convenience stores. There has always been a connection in Japan between food and health.

What keeps amazing me is the sheer volume of this industry in Japan. Teas, juices, and soft drinks of all varieties take up a solid refrigerated wall in convenience stores. The number of different products is mind-boggling. As is the number of new drinks brought to market every year: 1,500! Many of these fail, of course, but the sheer logistical power of Japan’s companies is impressive, to say the least.

[Japanese health teas: from left to right, Kuro-Oolong, Healthya and Catechin-Ryokucha]

Japanese health teas that became hit products:

Kao’s Healthya Ryokucha. When you drink a bottle of this green tea, that has been fortified with 540 mg of catechins, everyday for 3 months, Kao promises you will lose 10% of your body fat. This is a FOSHU (Food for Specified Health Use) product, in other words, Kao has obtained approval to label its effect on body fat by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The FOSHU market is huge ($6.5 billion a year) and also encompasses such popular products as Yakult.

The amount of catechins is 4 times higher than in normal green tea. As catechins make tea bitter, Kao had to develop a new technology to restrain the bitter taste (it is still rather bitter, but not unpleasantly so). In Japan, it has been a megahit product since its introduction in 2003. A sports drink with the same amount of catechins, Healthya Water, followed in 2006.

Another diet-assisting hit product is Suntory’s Kuro (Black) Oolong Tea OTPP. Launched in 2006, this tea drink contains 70 mg of polyphenole per 350 ml bottle, helping the body block the absorption of fats in foods and suppress the increase of triglycerides after meals by 20%. Like Healthya, Kuro-Oolong is a FOSHU product. It took 20 years to develop, demonstrating how much expensive research goes into these products before they become a cash cow. (OTPP in the name of the tea stands for “oolong tea polymerized polyphenols”). This tea is only mildly bitter and can well be enjoyed with your meal. Kuro-Oolong is also a great hit.

A new FOSHU tea is Itoen’s Catechin Ryokucha. The catechins in this product are for 90% of the “epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)” type, and the tea is marketed as helping keep cholesterol levels down. It is not bitter but also does not have a very distinctive taste. Itoen is market leader in the cut-throat ordinary bottled green tea market with its Oi-Ocha brand, but it remains to be seen whether they can take the lead from Healthya in the FOSHU tea section!

Catechins are said to boost and revitalize the immune system. They are powerful antioxydants. So green tea is good for you - in whichever form you drink it! A PET bottle of ordinary green tea, such as Suntory’s Iemon, Itoen’s Oi-Ocha, Coca Cola’s Hajime or Asahi’s Nama-Cha, will also do the job, at least partly.

As will a freshly brewed cup of green tea at home… I still remember the reaction of one of my Japanese colleagues, when bottled green tea first came to the market. This elderly lady scoffed at the stupid consumers who were buying expensive bottled stuff while being too lazy to brew a fresh cup themselves. And isn’t that the tastiest of all?

BusinessWeek article about Japanese health drinks.

2007 survey on consumer behavior as regards bottled tea from What japan Thinks.

Article in Science News about the slimming effects of green tea.

Japan Times article about the health properties of green tea.