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Japanese Canned Coffee History: Mira, UCC and Vending
Follow Mira Coffee in 1965, UCC’s canned milk coffee in 1969, and the changes in lids and vending that shaped Japan’s ready-to-drink coffee.
Quick Answer
Mira Coffee was sold in Japan in 1965, before UCC launched its canned milk coffee in April 1969. UCC's product gained wider recognition at Expo ’70. Changes in can openings and hot-or-cold vending then added to the convenience of buying and drinking packaged coffee.
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Mira Coffee Before UCC's Launch
The Hamada City Tourism Association's biography of Miura Yoshitake records a coffee shop opened in 1951, development of canned coffee beginning in 1963, and Mira Coffee sold at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi in 1965. A 2016 Hamada City newsletter also dates the product to 1965 and connects it with the area's canning industry.
The biography says production ended in 1968 because of financing problems. Mira's history therefore includes both an earlier commercial product and the difficulty of sustaining its business.
UCC's Canned Milk Coffee in 1969
UCC's corporate history records canned-coffee manufacturing and sales in 1969. Its museum identifies the product as canned coffee with milk, a useful distinction when comparing it with other early products.
In UCC's account, founder Tadao Ueshima had to leave unfinished bottled milk coffee behind when boarding a train. That inconvenience prompted the idea of a drink customers could carry away.
The company's anniversary history describes the development work: preventing milk from separating, managing flavor changes during heat sterilization and dealing with reactions between coffee components and metal. A portable container also needed a drink that held up inside it.
The same account dates the launch to April 1969 and wider recognition to Expo ’70 in Osaka.
Products, Packaging and Vending: The Timeline
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| 1965 | Hamada's records place Mira Coffee on sale. |
| April 1969 | UCC launches its canned milk coffee. |
| 1970 | UCC describes Expo ’70 as a turning point in recognition. |
| 1972 | Pokka launches its canned coffee. |
| 1973 | Pokka begins sales through hot-or-cold vending machines. |
| 1981 | UCC's product history records adoption of a detachable pull-tab. |
The Opening Mechanism Changed Too
Early UCC cans required a separate opener to make two holes: one for pouring or drinking and one to let air in. UCC's history dates the move to a detachable pull-tab to 1981.
That changed the task for the buyer. The original package could travel, but opening it required another tool. The tab put the opening mechanism on the can itself.
A personal note: I tend to think of convenience as a single quality until a detail such as the separate opener makes me slow down. A drink could be easy to carry and still ask the buyer to bring another tool. That small distinction is what I like about the packaging story: it gives an ordinary object a more specific history. I would rather explain how the lid changed the act of opening the drink than let a familiar brand or a “first” label do all the storytelling.
Hot-or-Cold Vending and Separate Compartments
Pokka Sapporo's chronology dates its coffee launch to 1972 and hot-or-cold vending sales to 1973. Its international history specifies May 1972 and November 1973.
The National Museum of Nature and Science technical history distinguishes successive temperature-control developments. Switching a machine between heating and cooling is one function; keeping separate hot and cold compartments available at the same time is another. Those changes expanded what a seller could offer without requiring the buyer to prepare the drink.
A packaged-beverage machine dispenses a ready-filled can. A cup-type machine prepares or dispenses a drink into a cup as part of the sale. The museum treats these as different equipment categories, even though both can sell coffee.
From the History to Today's Can
The product, lid and selling system each changed a different part of convenience: carrying the drink, opening it and finding it ready to buy.
For today's Japanese label terms, caffeine and serving information, use the canned-coffee guide. Canned coffee is prepared liquid; instant coffee is a soluble product to which the drinker adds water.
Sources
- Hamada City Tourism Association: Miura Yoshitake biography
- Hamada City newsletter, September 2016: article on Miura Yoshitake
- UCC Ueshima Coffee: Company history
- UCC Coffee Museum: Canned coffee with milk
- UCC, July 16, 2025: UCC Milk Coffee origin and package history
- Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage: Company history
- Pokka: Our Journey
- Yoshihiro Higuchi (2007), National Museum of Nature and Science: History of the Development of Beverage Vending Machine Technology in Japan