A Kyushu man in his 20s died last year from caffeine intoxication after drinking large quantities of caffeinated beverages daily over a long period to fight fatigue, researchers at Fukuoka University said. 
 
 Although something, possibly part of a caffeine pill, was extracted from his stomach, his death was most likely caused by consuming too many caffeinated drinks, according to the university’s forensic medicine faculty. 
 
 Because there was no sign of a deliberate overdose, the man’s death was considered accidental. 
 
 According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, it is apparently the first reported case in Japan of a fatal caffeine overdose caused by the consumption of drinks. 
 
 “We had never heard of fatal caffeine intoxication,” the ministry said. 
 
 The man apparently consumed caffeinated soft drinks in large quantities to stay awake. 
 
 A company that sells one such product has warned against drinking large amounts of the beverage in a short period of time, and to avoid consuming the product along with alcohol, which can cause side effects. 
 
 More than a dozen lethal cases of caffeine poisoning have been reported in the United States, where drinks containing high amounts of caffeine are readily available. 
 
 While the government has set no criteria for acceptable intake levels, some experts had speculated that there could be similar deaths in Japan. 
 
 According to the Food Safety Commission, an arm of the Cabinet Office, a healthy adult should generally avoid drinking more than three cups of coffee a day, while a child between 4 and 6 years old should consume no more than a single 350-ml can of cola. 
 
 According to the Fukuoka University forensic medicine faculty, the man was working at a 24-hour gas station from midnight until dawn. After finishing a shift, he would stay awake until the following evening and then sleep until it was time to go to work again. 
 
 He often consumed an energy drink containing caffeine and had experienced vomiting several times in the year prior to his death, a symptom of caffeine intoxication. 
 
 On the day he died, he was sleeping after returning home and later vomited. He was sent to the hospital but died. It is uncertain what quantity of energy drinks he had consumed. 
 
 Shinichi Kubo, a professor of forensic medicine at the university, concluded that the man had died from a caffeine overdose and reported the results to the police after carrying out an examination. 
 
 While no other illness or abnormality was recognized, a small amount of alcohol was found in the man’s blood and a high concentration of caffeine was contained in his gastric residuals, blood and urine. 
 
 As there were no signs of foul play a legal autopsy could not be performed. 
 
 As a result, the university was unable to run an extensive study on part of a pill, apparently a caffeine tablet, found in his stomach and discover how it contributed to the man’s death. ||||| Pedestrians wait to cross an intersection in Shibuya, Tokyo. Getty Images 
 
 A Japanese man in his 20s may have been the first in Japan to die from caffeine poisoning. 
 
 The man, whose name wasn't released, lived in the Kyushu region in western Japan and died in the fall of 2014, according to Dr. Shinichi Kubo, a professor of forensics at Fukuoka University. The police had asked Dr. Kubo to determine the cause of death. 
 
 Dr. Kubo said during a news conference Monday that the man, who worked overnight at a gasoline station, frequently consumed energy drinks at work and was said to have displayed symptoms of excessive caffeine consumption at least a year before he died, Dr. Kubo said. 
 
 The autopsy also showed high a concentration of caffeine in the man’s stomach, including in powder and granular forms, indicating he might have been taking caffeine tablets as well, Dr. Kubo said. 
 
 There have been no reports of death due to caffeine in records dating back 10 years, according to an official at the health ministry’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Safety Bureau. 
 
 Death from too much caffeine would likely require consuming 140 8-ounce cups of coffee in one day, according to some experts. 
 
 The Japanese government hasn’t put forward any advice on excessive caffeine intake. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says 600 milligrams of caffeine, or about four to seven cups of coffee, per day is too much. Cases of death from caffeine overdose, including a student who died after taking caffeine tablets to stay awake, have been reported in the U.S.
– When an unidentified man in his 20s in Kyushu, Japan, died suddenly and inexplicably in the fall of 2014, police ordered an inquest into the cause of his death. Now Dr. Shinichi Kubo, a professor of forensics at Fukuoka University, is announcing that it appears to be the country's first documented case of fatal daily caffeine consumption, reports Japan Times. "We had never heard of fatal caffeine intoxication," the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said. The man, who worked midnight to dawn at a 24-hour gasoline station, had vomited on multiple counts in the year leading up to his death; Japan Times reports such vomiting can signal caffeine intoxication. The actual quantity of caffeine he consumed on the day of his death and in general is unknown. He was found to have trace amounts of alcohol and a high concentration of caffeine in his stomach (in a granular form that suggested he might have taken tablets), blood, and urine, as well as the remnants of a pill that may have also contained caffeine. Fukuoka University determined the drinks—reportedly mostly soft drinks—were most likely what killed him, though the school wasn't legally permitted to run extensive tests on the pill. Some experts put the lethal amount of caffeine ingestion in a day at 140 8-ounce cups of coffee (containing 14,000mg), reports the Wall Street Journal, though the FDA tells Americans that 600mg (so roughly 6 cups) is too much. There have been reports of fatal caffeine overdoses in the US; this high school prom king died of a caffeine overdose just before graduating in 2014.