Japan grows its own coffee beans and gained expertise in coffee cultivation through the thousands of Japanese workers who went to work on Brazilian plantations. Tadao Ueshima started the domestic coffee industry in the 1930s and in 2020, at least 3.25 thousand tonnes of organic coffee beans were produced. Coffee is mainly grown in the in the Ogasawara island chain where conditions are favorable. However, domestic production cannot meet the insatiable demand of Japanese coffee drinkers, keeping coffee imports high.