No matter where you turn in Tokyo -- whether you’re craving an ice cream bar, peach Coke, or a pack of cigarettes -- there’s a vending machine waiting for you and carrying just what you need. This vending machine culture also extends to the lifeblood of folks from all over the world: coffee. And not just any coffee -- canned coffee; brewed, blended, and ready to drink. There’s hot versions, iced ones, milky lattes, bitter and black variations, labels touting beans from far flung locales like Hawaii, and flash-brewed varieties. The invention is so ubiquitous in Japan that the desire for canned coffee has begun to seep into new places, including the United States.

Canned coffee was invented in Japan back in the 1960s and viewed as a quick and convenient way to start the day. Ueshima Coffee Co -- or more commonly referred to as UCC -- is considered one of the pioneers of the canned coffee movement. Their first canned coffee product was released in 1969 and since then, UCC -- alongside many other Japanese companies -- have come up with new ways to innovate their products, whether that be adding milk and flavorings to the cans or introducing hot canned options in vending machines. But to begin to understand canned coffee, one must first understand coffee culture in Japan.

“Japanese coffee culture isn’t new,” says Keishi Fukata, the stateside brand manager of another canned coffee behemoth, BOSS Coffee. Even in the 1930s, Fukata mentioned that there were upwards of 10,000 coffee cafes in Tokyo alone. “These cafes served a similar purpose in Japan as they did in the west: as meeting houses and places of culture.”

“No matter what kind of lifestyle we have, coffee is always there for us,” added Yuki Izumi, who runs the coffee program at New York City’s Hi-Collar, a Japanese kissaten -- or coffee shop. Though Hi-Collar is the antithesis of canned coffee, offering fresh and carefully brewed cups with in-house ground beans, Izumi does acknowledge that she joyfully partook in the canned varieties when she was a student in Japan, particularly on mornings where she had overslept. Her go-to was a hot coffee from the vending machine, where she would warm her hands on the steaming can as she awaited her train.

With the rise of Japan’s metropolitan areas and fast-paced workforce, timing became everything and leisurely cups of coffee at cafes could no longer be considered a daily ritual. The shift to canned coffee was a natural progression; you can stop at a convenience store -- or conbini in Japanese -- to get your dose. Even more efficient are the vending machines, which Izumi told me, “are everywhere. You don’t need to wait in line to buy -- no need to interrupt anybody.”

This is a point that anthropologist Merry White also noticed about Japanese coffee culture, and noted in her book, Coffee Life in Japan. She wrote that, “Coffee consumption is broad-based, unlike the practices of matcha or tea-ceremony tea. It is also fast-moving.” For the busy commuter, canned coffee became the ideal method of getting their needed caffeine fix, without compromising on timing. The act could still be one of solitude -- just expedited.