Outside of Kyoto, Japan, in a small city called Uji, tea farmer Yoshitsugu Furukawa is struggling to figure out what President Donald Trump’s 15% tariffs on all Japanese exports set to go into effect on Aug. 1 could mean for his family business.
“I would understand imposing these tariffs for things that would create competition,” Furukawa told ABC News. “For example, if it’s an automobile, they are manufactured in the U.S. and in Japan as well, so it can pose a threat. Whereas tea, currently there is no matcha making in the U.S., so it’s not going to hurt anyone in the U.S. So, for things like that it should be tariff free.”
Furukawa, whose craft has been passed down to him through six generations, grows tencha tea leaves on his family’s farm in Uji. Tencha leaves are then sold to wholesalers who undertake the laborious process of turning raw tea leaves into matcha powder, which is then sold to retailers in Japan, and now, all over the world.
