Japan’s canned coffee industry, which can be traced back to Tadao Ueshima’s encounter with a bottle of coffee milk in 1969, has become a multi-billion dollar business. Ueshima, the CEO of UCC Coffee, tasked his team with creating a coffee that could be bought and carried away. After facing numerous challenges, they successfully launched the first mass-produced canned coffee in 1969. Initially, people were skeptical about drinking coffee from a steel can, but UCC’s participation in the 1970 Osaka World Fair helped popularize canned coffee. Other companies like Pokka and Coca Cola also entered the market, leading to widespread success. The success of canned coffee is attributed to the convenient packaging and wide availability through vending machines. The article concludes by suggesting the possibility of exploring Japanese vending machines in a future article.
https://one-from-nippon.ghost.io/coffee-in-a-can/