Harada Shinya and Junko, both 41
Coffee Shop Owners from Kamioka, Gifu
Why did you want to run a coffee shop?
After the city put a train line through here (Kamioka, Gifu), the city office became unnecessary. A group of proprietors wanted to put this building to use, so they started this coffee shop. That was in 1986--we took over in 1987. My husband had been working in Aichi, and was moonlighting at a coffee shop there.Tell me about your coffee.
We buy raw beans and bake them. We use various beans--flavored, fragrant, and fermented, for example, That’s a big difference from usual coffee shops. Also, we use organic beans. We want to protect the working lives of locals. We learned about this through purchasing organic coffee from a shop in Takayama. It’s fair trade coffee. Normally, capitalist pressures put the price down which makes it difficult for coffee bean growers to make a living. The beans we buy are very expensive. Normally, a coffee shop has good profits from a very large markup. We keep our prices low even though we buy expensive. Locals here don’t want to pay a lot for a cup of coffee.So how do you make money?
At first, we had no profit. Our gross income was 7,800,000. Now we’ve grown to make 2,600,000 a year and have four employees.You’ve explained that your beans have a different effect. Why?
Caffeine can relax as well as energize, but fresh coffee tends to relax. I think coffee is good for health, particularly the aroma.How long does it take to prepare the beans?
Different beans take different amounts of time. The average is 30 minutes for 3 kg. We hand sort all our beans two times, before and after baking, discarding imperfect beans. We make aroma bags from the rejected beans and provide them free of charge. We use this rather old fashioned machine; it’s rarely used these days. We bought it used for 2,000,000 yen.What are the good and bad points of owning a coffee shop?
Our dream is to make lots of money! (laughter). I’d like to see Fair Trade spread--as well as see my sales increase. I guess I’m greedy! The bad point is I can’t holiday with my kids. Monday is our weekly holiday, and we only take about three days off a year, at New Year’s.Is Japan becoming a coffee-loving society?
It really depends on the prefecture. Nagano-ken has a very strong tea drinking culture. After dinner, it’s tea and pickles. Coffee trees don’t grow here because it’s too cold. They grow best at 25 latitude.the end
This interview was originally published in Kansai Time Out magazine.