Starbucks Coffee Wafts Into Japan

It took decades for apples to break in, and it may take a century for cars, but as of Friday Starbucks is selling coffee in Japan.

In the heart of Tokyo’s tony, trendy Ginza shopping district, Seattle-based Starbucks has opened its first store outside North America.

Company executives and outside analysts say it will work because the Japanese love coffee, their coffee is lame and Starbucks did its homework. It trained its Japanese managers in Seattle and signed on a respected Japanese retail firm, Sazaby, as a joint-venture partner.

“The good news is the Japanese drink coffee, the bad news is they haven’t a clue what lattes are,” said Charles Hill, an international business professor at the University of Washington. “My guess is they’ll figure that out.”

Japan is the fourth largest coffee-consuming country in the world, after the United States, Brazil and Germany. Japanese tourists in Seattle have learned enough about the brand that their tour buses frequently stop at Starbucks stores.

They won’t have any trouble recognizing the store in Japan, or any of the dozen Tokyo metro-area stores that will follow in the next year. It’s a Starbucks, from the perky barristas to the tasteful food to the sign - in English - outside.

Putting the sign in English instead of translating Starbucks into Japanese also saves the company from the problem Coca-Cola once ran into in China. The Chinese characters most closely approximating “Coca-Cola” translated to “bite the wax tadpole.”