Makurazaki Tea Industry Research Center,
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization

A vast tea plantation extends to the city of Makurazaki, Kagoshima Prefecture, at the southern tip of Kyushu. There, you have a very nice view of Mount Kaimondake, nicknamed “Satsuma Fuji“, which is one of “Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains”. The Makurazaki Tea Industry Research Center under the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) is located there. The warm climatic conditions and the genetic resources of more than 5,000 kinds of tea collected from all over the world form the basis of basic research on the development of tea varieties and on the tea genome that constitutes them.