The history of tea in Japan has its earliest known references in a text written by a Buddhist monk in the 9th century. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys went to China to learn about its culture and subsequently brought tea back to Japan. The first form of tea brought from China was probably Brick Tea. The historical ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by a priest named Saicho in 805 and then by another named Kukai in 806. It became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga, the Japanese emperor, encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.

Japanese Green tea , is ubiquitous in Japan and therefore is more commonly known simply as "tea." It is even referred to as "Japanese tea" though it was first used in China during the Song Dynasty 960-1279, and brought to Japan by Myoan Eisai, a Japanese Buddhist priest who also introduced the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism.