Japan named Best Performing Nation by World Coffee Events

The year 2013 was a stand-out, for Japanese competitors as they made their prowess known across multiple international competitions. Notably Hisako Yoshikawa came in first place at the World Latte Art Championship. Hisako has been a barista for seven years, working with Ogawa Coffee in Kyoto, Japan. Japan has historically done well in latte art, with Haruna Murayama famously taking first place in London in 2010. Naoki Goto took first place in the 2013 World Coffee Roasting Championship. This was the first year WCE held an official World Coffee Roasting event, following on from a preview competition in 2012. Naoki is the owner and roaster of Tokado Coffee in Onojo City, Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan, a shop he started just five years ago to sell fresh roasted coffee in his neighbourhood. Japan also performed well in the World Cup Tasters Championship, with Risa Sasaki from Coffee Mamezo winning second place. Risa made it past the first round with seven correct tastings out of eight, in a time of just seven minutes and 45 seconds. She went on to identify another seven in seven minutes and 52 seconds. Risa then got a perfect score of eight in the semi final round to make it to the finals. She represented Japan well in the final round, to clear the third place winner by two identifications. Competing against so many countries, Japan did outstanding to score in the top 20 positions in every other competition. Japan Barista Champion Hidenori Izaki from Maruyama Coffee just missed out on the semi-finals, coming in 13th at the World Barista Championship that took place for the first time in Melbourne, Australia, alongside the World Brewers Cup, where Eliji Koda came in 17th. At the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, Shuichi Ofuchi from Mixology Bar Source 2012 in Tokyo used his background as a barista to take 12th place.