Popularity of Canned Coffee Starts with 1970 Osaka Expo; Product’s Success Resembles Viral Moment

By Takeru Tsuzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

11:39 JST, March 12, 2025

With less than 100 days to go before the opening of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, it makes sense to focus on the 1970 Osaka Expo, which contributed to the creation of many innovative products and services that are now commonplace. Canned coffee is one of them.

Canned coffee had a meteoric rise in popularity, as it represented the coffee culture of the future. The product made it possible to enjoy coffee anytime and anywhere, even though coffee was thought to be something that could only be enjoyed in coffee shops. To put the situation in today’s internet terminology, canned coffee “went viral.”

UCC founder’s idea

Preparations for the April 13 opening of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo are proceeding at a rapid pace on Yumeshima, the man-made island in Osaka where the event will take place. The Expo will feature a flying car, a bendable solar cell and a “heart” made from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, among other things. Based on the theme of “People’s Living Lab,” the Expo will showcase the future of medicine and our daily lives.

At the 1970 Expo, new technologies such as cell phones and electric cars were unveiled. Overseas foods new to many Japanese people, such as baguettes and Kentucky Fried Chicken, were also on offer. Canned coffee was an item representing the new food culture being popularized at the 1970 Expo.

Canned coffee was developed by Tadao Ueshima, founder of Kobe-based UCC Group, who was involved in the coffee bean wholesale business.

One day, at a train station kiosk, Ueshima bought a bottle of coffee milk. While he was drinking it, the train he planned to board rang its departure bell. As he had to return the glass bottle to the kiosk, he was unable to finish it.

“We should create a coffee drink that anyone can enjoy anytime, anywhere,” Ueshima thought at the time.

In 1969, the year before the 1970 Osaka Expo, he developed the canned “UCC Milk Coffee.”

Negative view reversed

When the product was launched, it was disregarded by the industry and even called “a product of heresy.” In the face of this resistance, Ueshima and his team turned their attention to the Osaka Expo as a sales strategy.

Under the scorching sun at the Expo venue, guests standing in long lines drank cold canned coffee. They went home and told others about their first experience with the drink.

A decisive factor in the product’s success was a TV broadcast showing people drinking the product at the Expo venue.

“The TV showed people happily drinking cold canned coffee,” said Hidefumi Sakae, director of the UCC Coffee Museum. “I believe that consumers were surprised to see such a sight in a positive way, as we were told not to eat [or drink] while walking outside. I’ve heard that from the next morning, the phone at the company started ringing with people wanting to place orders.”

The videos and images showed a product people had never seen before, and news of the product spread by word of mouth. It seems to me that this incident was a forerunner of how something goes viral on the internet or social media today.

The first World Expo was held in London in 1851. About 100,000 exhibits representing the latest technologies, from steam locomotives to sewing machines, were on display, sparking an interest in the future for about 6 million visitors. Since then, each Expo has attracted 1 million to more than 70 million people.

“The Expos used to be a way for people to learn about various things when there were no movies or TV,” said Prof. Yutaka Iida of Ritsumeikan University, an expert on the history of World Expos. “The 1970 Expo helped popularize various products by cooperating with TV stations.”

It could be said that the 1970 Expo played a big part in what is called “going viral” today.

Consumption at turning point

Canned coffee swept the market by successfully meeting the needs of workers during Japan’s high economic growth period, when their working hours were increasing and they wanted to feel refreshed or were in need of a quick pick-me-up.

The star product, however, is now at a turning point.

According to the All Japan Coffee Association, about 1.2 million kiloliters of canned coffee was consumed in 2023, almost half the level of 30 years ago.

There are several reasons for the decline.

Around 2012, convenience store chains began selling freshly brewed coffee at checkout counters for only about 100 yen per cup.

With increased health consciousness and stricter anti-smoking policies, the traditional practice of “smoking while taking a break with a can of coffee in hand” has gone out of fashion.

In 2017, coffee in plastic bottles became a hit, with more of it being consumed than canned coffee.

From a different perspective, however, it can be said that the culture of “easily drinking coffee” that canned coffee started has continued in a different form.

So-called family restaurants and conveyor-belt sushi restaurants also gained popularity and are still popular today as a result of the 1970 Expo. Fifty-five years later, we can expect a new type of food culture to emerge from the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.

Coffee: super high-end drink?

A time when it is not so easy to drink coffee may be right around the corner.

The price of coffee futures in New York (averaged for last November) for high-end Arabica coffee beans, a global benchmark for the beans, was 277.04 cents per pound, an increase of about 50% year-over-year. The London futures price for Robusta coffee beans, a benchmark for those beans, which are mainly used for instant coffee, rose by more than 70%.

The increased prices are due to a shortage of supply caused by unseasonable weather in coffee-producing countries and rising demand in emerging countries with growing economies.

In China, in particular, coffee lovers are rapidly increasing. In 2023, the number of coffee chain stores in that country surpassed that of the United States to become the largest in the world.

The supply-demand balance is off, causing the price of coffee beans to rise.

On the supply side, there is also an urgent need to combat climate change. A U.S. coffee research institute has stated that the amount of land suitable for growing Arabica beans will be halved by 2050.

Coffee companies are taking countermeasures to deal with the problem.

UCC will start mass producing coffee beans for roasting using hydrogen as a heat source in the spring of 2025. The company will work to decarbonize the roasting process while making efforts to create a unique flavor.

To preserve coffee culture, further technological innovation and environmental initiatives are urgently needed.