Different tea cultivation style

Tea cultivation areas in Japan are varying from hillside area to flat area. The tea cultivated on the mountains is especially known for their high quality. 38% of those farms on the hillside of the mountains are located on inclination of 15 degrees. Those farms are relatively small and many of them do not use machines for harvesting. However the tea estates on the flat land, advanced automation system for picking and maintaining is very common. Therefore the style of tea cultivation between the hillside and flatland are greatly different. In Shizuoka, automatic rail harvester is more commonly used than Auto harvester. In Kagoshima prefecture, Auto plucker is more used. It is because 75.5% of tea farms in Kagoshima prefecture are located in less than 5 degrees inclination. In Shizuoka only 43.9% are located less than 18 degrees inclination. Auto style harvester is not suitable for the hillside tea farms. Tea farms using rail harvester for the harvest look half circled, and other look more flat on the surface.