The history of coffee in Japan goes back further than you’d think. When Japan isolated itself from 1638-1858 (a period called sakoku), foreign merchants’ access to Japan was strictly regulated. On the tiny island of Dejima, in Nagasaki, European merchants drank coffee, though it did not yet catch on among Japanese people. When sakoku ended and gave way to the Meiji restoration, coffee gradually began to be imported, with Tokyo’s first coffee shop apparently opening in 1888.
World Wars I and II slowed coffee imports down, but in the 1960s it became fashionable, and today Japan is among the world’s largest importers of coffee, bringing in US$1.4 billion worth in 2014 alone.
You can get coffee almost anywhere in Japan, from big chains like Doutor (not particularly recommended!) and Starbucks (a good place for Wi-Fi in Japan), to the millions of vending machines across the country, which dispense it in both hot and cold cans.