Storyline Bringing Decaf Innovation to Coffee-Producing Regions

This article is presented in collaboration with the Startup Support Section, Economic Affairs Bureau, Sendai City Government. The featured startup will showcase its products and services at its booth during SWITCH (Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology), held from October 29 to 31, 2025.

A quiet experiment is underway at Chooze Coffee, a café in Nihonbashi, a historic business district in central Tokyo. Approximately half of customers choose “decaf” (caffeine-free） coffee. Considering that industry sources estimate decaf accounts for less than 1% of Japan’s coffee imports, this figure is remarkable. Storyline, the company operating this café, is demonstrating that consumer choices can change dramatically simply by changing how products are offered.

The company’s founder, Junko Iwai, launched Storyline in 2018 after a career at design firms. Her goal is not simply to make delicious decaf coffee. Armed with supercritical carbon dioxide extraction technology developed jointly with Tohoku University, she aims to create new added value in coffee-producing regions and bring innovation to the global coffee industry. Her strategy started in Rwanda, Africa, and is now expanding to Southeast Asia, beginning with Thailand.

The decaf market is experiencing rapid global growth. According to multiple market research firms, the global decaf market has been growing at an average annual rate of 6-7% from the early to mid-2020s, transforming from “something pregnant women and sick people are forced to choose” to “an option anyone can freely select” as health consciousness rises. However, decaffeination technology and facilities are concentrated in developed countries, and coffee-producing nations have been unable to benefit from this trend. Storyline aims to fundamentally change this structure.

Designing How the World Works

Iwai’s career might seem unrelated to the coffee business at first glance. Why did someone with design firm experience dive into this world? The answer lies in a perspective unique to design thinking.

What caught Iwai’s attention was the paradox within the decaf market. While demand clearly exists due to rising health consciousness, product quality is low and prices are high. Producing regions cannot generate added value, while consuming regions have limited options. Investigating this problematic situation revealed issues in technology, distribution, and sales methods.

I think of this as design work. Not designing things, but designing how the world works. Noticing the needs and insights on both sides, and thinking backwards about how to realize them—that’s what I believe design thinking is. (Iwai)

As a newcomer to the technology, Iwai searched for the ideal decaffeination technique and eventually arrived at Tohoku University. The university is world-renowned for supercritical fluid technology research and had been advancing research on caffeine extraction using supercritical carbon dioxide since the 1990s. However, like many university-developed technologies, it had been blocked by the wall of social implementation.

Iwai met with Professor Masaru Watanabe of Tohoku University and became convinced of the technology’s potential. Storyline was born in July 2018. Currently, the headquarters is located in the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency’s incubation facility within Tohoku University, with 10 full-time employees and about 15 total including contractors and part-timers. In April 2024, the company officially moved its head office registration from Tokyo to Sendai, the largest city in Japan’s Tohoku region, becoming a Tohoku-based startup in both name and reality.

From the beginning, Iwai’s vision was not simply selling decaf coffee, but creating new value by bringing decaffeination technology to producing regions. Her approach of “bringing business and high-value-added technology, not just providing materials” distinguishes her from traditional development assistance to developing countries.

Revolutionary Water-Free Technology

Storyline’s competitive advantage lies in its proprietary caffeine extraction technology developed jointly with Tohoku University. There are three main methods of decaf manufacturing worldwide: organic solvent method, water extraction method, and supercritical carbon dioxide method.

The organic solvent method is the oldest, using chemical solvents like dichloromethane. While costs are low, there’s a risk of solvent residue, and its use is restricted in Europe. The water extraction method is safe and currently most widely used, but flavor components are easily lost along with caffeine. The supercritical carbon dioxide method produces good quality, but requires large capital investment and, according to industry sources, operates only in limited locations worldwide—Canada, Mexico, and Germany.

Even conventional supercritical carbon dioxide methods involved soaking beans in water before processing. This causes beans to expand, resulting in discoloration and cracking during drying. Storyline’s technology completely eliminates this “water soaking” step. By selectively extracting only caffeine without beans touching water, flavor component loss is minimized and the beans’ appearance remains virtually unchanged from regular green beans.

Quality evaluations have achieved scores dramatically higher than conventional water extraction methods. While the coffee industry has long recognized decaf as “practice material for roasting,” beans processed with Storyline’s technology achieve quality that roasters can treat like regular beans.

Environmental benefits are also significant. Water usage is reduced to one-tenth or less of conventional methods, and the carbon dioxide used can be recovered and reused. Furthermore, Iwai envisions using CO₂ emitted from bioethanol plants and similar sources. Combined with technology developed by Germany’s Messer for producing food-grade liquefied carbon dioxide from bioethanol byproducts, carbon-negative production processes are within reach.

Currently, Storyline has installed a small-scale laboratory unit on the Tohoku University campus in Sendai, continuing sample production at several kilograms per batch. Based on data obtained from this lab unit, they are proceeding with production-scale equipment design, planning to move to full production demonstration in the next phase.

The company has named this proprietary technology the “ZEN Craft Decaf Process.” Given the costs involved, they are initially focusing on high-quality specialty coffee, aiming for high-value-added product development.

Caffeine Control Changes Consumer Behavior

Alongside technology development, Storyline has focused on expanding the decaf market itself. In 2021, Iwai introduced the concept of “Caffeine Control.” This was an attempt to redefine decaf not as “a substitute for people who must avoid caffeine” but as “a positive choice anyone can select according to their condition.”

Traditional decaf’s primary customers were pregnant women, people with sleep disorders, and those instructed by doctors to avoid caffeine intake—”people who absolutely cannot consume caffeine.” For them, decaf was a poor-tasting substitute they had no choice but to select.

However, in recent years, a new consumer segment has emerged with rising health consciousness: “people who drink too much caffeine.” Many people habitually continue drinking coffee while experiencing sleep quality and concentration issues. Iwai believed decaf had real value for precisely these people.

To test this hypothesis, in 2023 she obtained seed funding from Tohoku University Venture Partners, a university-affiliated venture capital firm, and opened Chooze Coffee in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The shop’s concept was clear: not a decaf specialty shop, but offering caffeinated and decaf as equal options for all drinks. Customers could customize their caffeine amount at the same level as choosing size or hot/iced.

Results exceeded expectations. The ratio of approximately half the customers choosing decaf has continued consistently since opening. Similar trends are seen at event pop-ups and wholesale locations. Given that industry sources estimate decaf accounts for less than 1% of Japan’s coffee imports, it’s surprising that such change occurs simply by changing the offering method.

Interestingly, many customers consciously choose decaf for the first time. In the company’s store survey, 70% of customers responded that “I wasn’t conscious of it before, but my awareness of caffeine intake increased,” and 90% answered “I want to continue caffeine control.” Some customers even realized their long-suffering headaches were caused by excessive caffeine intake.

In joint demonstration experiments conducted by the company with Miyagi Prefecture (in Japan’s Tohoku region, home to Sendai) and NTT East Japan’s Sendai Branch (a major Japanese telecommunications company), they quantitatively verified the effects of caffeine control. Subjects drank four cups of caffeinated coffee daily in week one, then switched to caffeinated coffee only in the morning and gradually to decaf in the afternoon in week two, recording changes in sleep quality, concentration, and mood. Results showed improved sleep duration, no decline in concentration, and no negative impact on mood.

Since Storyline introduced the caffeine control concept in 2021, major companies have successively entered this market. From 2023 onward, major Japanese coffee companies including UCC and Key Coffee, along with beverage giant Suntory, have launched caffeine-free and caffeine-half products one after another. Nestlé released “Nescafé Gold Caffeine Half” in the Japanese market, and convenience store chain Seven-Eleven began offering 75% caffeine-reduced coffee at some stores in Japan.

We can’t create the market with just our one store. When major companies enter, the entire market expands. Since we’re aiming for the manufacturing side, market expansion is very welcome. (Iwai)

From Rwanda to Thailand

Initially, Rwanda in Africa was at the center of Storyline’s global strategy. This small nation of about 13 million people has achieved miraculous recovery from the 1994 genocide and is known for its development strategy aiming to become “Africa’s Singapore.” It has attracted attention as Sub-Saharan Africa’s model student through ICT infrastructure development, corruption eradication, and business environment improvement.

Coffee is a major export item for the country, leveraging its highland climate suitable for high-quality Arabica cultivation while focusing on specialty coffee production. For Rwanda, which promotes value addition as a national strategy, decaffeination technology seemed an ideal solution.

Iwai obtained subsidies from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s J-Partnership project to conduct feasibility studies and on-site experiments in Rwanda. The response was excellent. An official meeting with the CEO of the National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) resulted in the evaluation that it “perfectly aligns with national policy.” However, the project did not progress as hoped.

The response was good, but project progress is slow. There’s no one to provide funding. There are also limits to government support, and many counterpart businesses are small local companies without the financial foundation to commit to large-scale investment. We get reactions like ‘That’s great, come soon,’ but the concrete progress has been slow. (Iwai)

Meanwhile, approaches from Southeast Asia began increasing. Multiple businesses from Thailand in particular showed strong interest. Iwai herself initially wasn’t familiar with Asia’s coffee market, but through repeated visits, she came to recognize its potential.

Southeast Asia had a major advantage Rwanda lacked: a rapidly growing consumer market. According to World Bank data, Southeast Asia’s middle-income class is predicted to double from 2020 to 2030, with coffee consumption rapidly expanding accordingly. However, Asia has almost no decaf factories, and the market remains virtually untapped.

Business operators are predicting the rise in health consciousness, and the situation is ‘We want to do decaf quickly, but there are no factories in Asia.’ I felt that enthusiasm. (Iwai)

Currently, the most advanced project is with Thailand’s state-owned Doi Tung. The brand is operated by the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, established in 1988 by Princess Srinagarindra, grandmother of current King Rama X (King Vajiralongkorn).

This project has historical context in the region called the Golden Triangle. This area where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos borders meet was once the world’s largest opium production region. The Princess Mother started the Royal Project teaching coffee cultivation to ethnic minorities in mountainous areas, achieving both forest conservation and economic independence. Today, Doi Tung brand coffee has gained international recognition.

I’ve met with the Doi Tung CEO many times, working together on quality improvement. Ultimately, we want to bring a decaf factory to Thailand together. (Iwai)

The project includes Germany’s Messer and a Thai bioethanol company, aiming to build a comprehensive ecosystem including CO₂ recovery and utilization. By combining Messer’s CO₂ recovery and liquefaction technology with bioethanol produced in Thailand, they envision realizing a carbon-negative production process.

Expansion possibilities extend beyond Thailand. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest coffee producer, producing about 670,000 tons annually. Vietnam is the world’s second-largest producer, mainly of Robusta, but Arabica cultivation is increasing. China’s Yunnan Province is also rapidly growing as an emerging coffee production area. Inquiries have come even from Panama, known for premium coffee.

Around the world, awareness that demand for decaf exists has finally spread. This is really a change from just the past few years. (Iwai)

Merging Economic Rationality with Social Contribution

Storyline’s ultimate vision is building decaf factories in coffee-producing regions and constructing ecosystems that generate added value locally. This is not idealism but an extremely rational economic strategy.

According to industry sources, currently only three factories worldwide accept external decaffeination contracts—in Canada, Mexico, and Germany. In other words, decaf from around the world is transported to one of these three locations. This structure creates an unbelievably inefficient supply chain.

An example Iwai heard is symbolic. A Japanese business wanted to decaffeinate coffee from Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia prohibits direct exports between producing countries, so it cannot be sent directly to Mexico. As a result, coffee must follow an absurdly inefficient route: import from Ethiopia to Japan, send from Japan to Mexico, then return to Japan after processing—literally traveling halfway around the globe.

From a food mileage perspective, the problem is significant. According to Storyline’s calculations, CO₂ emissions are reduced by approximately half when comparing the route from Africa via Canada to Japan versus processing caffeine removal in Africa and shipping directly to Japan. The current situation where beans travel unnecessarily long distances for decaffeination is unsustainable from an environmental burden perspective.

With factories in producing regions, coffee byproducts can also be effectively utilized. The fruit portion of coffee cherries, cascara, normally discarded, is rich in chlorogenic acid with strong antioxidant properties. If this component, commercialized by Japanese consumer goods company Kao in products like Healthya Coffee, could be extracted locally and sold as supplements or drinks, it would become a new income source for farmers.

Storyline has actually succeeded in chlorogenic acid extraction experiments. About 500 kilograms of cascara is generated from one ton of coffee beans, and what was previously mere waste could become high-value-added products.

However, realization faces major challenges. Initially, Storyline envisioned a business model of building factories themselves and generating revenue through bean production and sales. Supplying large volumes of decaf beans to the market requires appropriately scaled production facilities. But the biggest hurdle is funding.

There was always a dilemma about whether building a giant factory was really what we wanted to do. If aiming for IPO, we’d need a huge factory capable of handling large volumes of beans. But what we really wanted to do was bring technology to various producing regions. (Iwai)

What Iwai and her team are considering is a business model transformation. Rather than generating revenue through bean production and sales, they’re shifting focus to licensing technology and know-how and selling decaf equipment. This model would allow organizations like the aforementioned Mae Fah Luang Foundation to own factories, with Storyline involved as a technology partner.

Coffein Compagnie, based in Bremen, Germany, has deployed with a similar model. They established Descafecol in Colombia as a joint venture in the 1990s, providing factory design and technology. While Descafecol now operates as an independent Colombian company, the model of providing technology and know-how overlaps with Storyline’s direction.

This approach has another benefit. Japan’s High Pressure Gas Safety Act is considered the world’s most stringent, pushing up operational costs for supercritical carbon dioxide equipment. For example, stainless steel pressure vessel wall thickness requires approximately three times the engineering-necessary thickness. Legal inspections require stopping lines for over a month annually.

When we surveyed in Rwanda, they said high-pressure gas regulations don’t even exist. If building a factory, we’d discuss appropriate regulations with the government. As a result, cost-efficient operations better than Japan may be possible. (Iwai)

Visualizing Caffeine

In Japan, Storyline is advancing interesting demonstration experiments: the “Wellness Lounge” project in collaboration with NTT East, a major local telecom company.

This project focuses on daily health management. Visiting customers are diagnosed for their day’s condition simply by speaking in front of a terminal for about 15 seconds. AI analyzes mental and physical state from voice tone and facial expressions, evaluating conditions like “today is yellow.” Based on this, optimal caffeine amounts of coffee are recommended.

The spatial design also features careful consideration. The facility comprises three areas: “KAGEROU” (heat shimmer), “HINATA” (sunny spot), and “KOKAGE” (shade). KAGEROU is a café space performing emotional analysis and providing coffee and meals with optimal caffeine amounts based on results.

HINATA is a communication space themed on “awakening,” with bright lighting and an active atmosphere stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, supporting concentration maintenance and productivity improvement. KOKAGE is a relaxation area with subdued lighting and a relaxing environment activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Visitors can choose where to spend time according to their condition.

Recently, many measurement services say ‘we’ll diagnose something about you,’ but most just measure and end there. NTT East wanted to make concrete proposals based on measurement results. (Iwai)

For Storyline, this project’s greatest significance is “quantifying caffeine.” Caffeine content varies greatly by bean variety, roast level, and extraction method. Espresso contains about 60-80 milligrams per cup, drip coffee about 80-120 milligrams, and canned coffee about 100-150 milligrams. Many people don’t know how much caffeine they consume daily.

Storyline analyzed and digitized caffeine content per cup for all coffee provided. Menus display caffeine levels from 1 to 5, with suggestions like “Level 4 is recommended today” based on terminal diagnosis results.

Iwai considers deploying this technology in vending machines in the future. For example, higher caffeine if an important meeting is scheduled in the afternoon, lower caffeine in the evening close to bedtime—optimization according to schedules becomes possible.

When you scan your data, coffee with optimal caffeine amount automatically comes out, understanding your constitution, today’s physical condition, and schedule. That’s what I want to do. (Iwai)

As health management digitalization advances, caffeine intake optimization may become a new frontier. Just as wearable devices record sleep and exercise, an era may come when caffeine intake is also visualized and managed.

Between Technology and Markets

While Storyline’s business development appears smooth, Iwai speaks frankly about fundraising difficulties. Particularly, differences in how investors perceive “deep tech or retail” complicate evaluations.

Japan’s venture capital firms have become increasingly specialized by field in recent years. Deep tech-focused funds invest in “truly innovative technologies” like space, quantum computing, pharmaceuticals, and materials science. From their perspective, supercritical carbon dioxide is an improvement of existing technologies, and coffee is merely a luxury goods market.

Meanwhile, VCs investing in consumer goods and retail are cautious about business models requiring long time and funding for technology development. Responses like “Decaf won’t sell. It hasn’t sold until now” were not uncommon.

However, such views may overlook market changes. The non-alcoholic beer market is a good example. Once shunned as “beer substitute,” non-alcoholic beer was long relegated to market corners. But the situation changed dramatically.

Following Suntory’s “All-Free” launch in 2010, the market rapidly expanded as health consciousness rose and technology innovated. By 2023, Japan’s non-alcoholic beer market reached about 60 billion yen (approximately $400 million), tripling from the early 2010s. Products succeeding in taste improvement appeared one after another, transforming the image from “something you endure drinking” to “something you actively choose.”

I think the decaf coffee market is at a similar turning point. The situation with today’s decaf is similar to the era when non-alcoholic beer was called “unsellable.” If we change the offering method, improve quality, and major companies enter, the market will definitely move. (Iwai)

Another major challenge is the absence of a CTO. The company’s management, including Iwai, consists of business-side personnel. Professor Masaru Watanabe of Tohoku University, who developed the company’s supercritical carbon dioxide extraction technology, is deeply involved as a technical advisor but not full-time. During investment consideration, the question “Who is responsible for this technology?” always comes up.

Personnel proficient in supercritical fluid technology are extremely limited. Tohoku University, Nagoya University, Kumamoto University and others are research centers, but most graduates join major companies earning high salaries. Transitioning to startups is not easy. According to Iwai, while many people show interest, they haven’t yet recruited anyone to the team.

Nevertheless, market conditions are certainly changing. UCC, one of Japan’s leading coffee companies, has introduced the concept of “Caffeine Management,” while beverage giant Suntory promotes “Caffeine Control,” and major companies are fully entering the caffeine-free market. Nestlé’s “Nescafé Gold Caffeine Half” was selected as one of 2023’s major news items by the All Japan Coffee Association. The market’s time is clearly maturing.

While facing challenges like fundraising and CTO recruitment, Iwai’s perspective remains constantly global. In late October, she will exhibit for the third consecutive year from Sendai City’s booth at “SWITCH,” Southeast Asia’s largest startup event held in Singapore.

Our network in Asia has expanded. Besides Thailand, there are many places we haven’t visited yet, like Indonesia, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan Province. We need to understand the demand in each country. (Iwai)

Southeast Asia has a powerful economic network called the Chinese diaspora (Overseas Chinese) network. In countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore, Chinese-origin conglomerates drive the economy. If successful in one country, expansion to other countries could accelerate through these networks. Iwai also recognizes this possibility.

The Rwanda project is not abandoned.

I don’t think it has to be Rwanda, but there’s meaning in Rwanda being the starting point. There’s definitely demand there. (Iwai)

The African continent has numerous coffee-producing countries—Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, among others—all producing high-quality Arabica. If infrastructure improves and investment environments develop, future expansion possibilities are substantial.

Central and South America are also within view. Many specialty coffee production regions exist, including Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. Panama’s Geisha variety in particular is known as ultra-premium coffee trading at hundreds of U.S. dollars per pound, ideal material for decaf value addition. Inquiries have actually come from Panamanian businesses.

The ecosystem Iwai envisions transcends mere business models. Coffee farmer average age is advancing to the 50s and 60s globally. According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO) and others, the average age of coffee farmers in Africa has reached 60, in Colombia 56, and in Uganda 55, with succession issues becoming serious in many production regions. In addition, Climate change altering suitable cultivation areas, international price fluctuations, rising living costs—the environment surrounding producers is increasingly harsh.

The added value that decaffeination technology brings could be one solution to these structural problems. If higher income can be earned from the same amount of beans, younger generations might find hope in coffee cultivation. Investment in health insurance and education becomes possible.

Storyline has previously implemented a project dedicating part of sales to health insurance for Rwandan producers.

In Rwanda, family health insurance can be purchased for a few hundred yen (a few U.S. dollars) per year. But farmers unfamiliar with the concept of investment don’t easily sign up. To help them work longer, such small support can greatly improve producers’ quality of life. (Iwai)

With a designer’s background, for Iwai, Storyline’s business is a grand project of “designing how the world works.” Technology development, market creation, and value return to producing regions—she aims to build an ecosystem integrating all these elements.

I felt potential in decaf as a product. But there was a problematic reality of low quality, high prices, and profits not returning to producing regions. On the other hand, consumer demand definitely exists with rising health consciousness. If we change this reality and improve technology, distribution, and sales methods, the market will grow more, ultimately contributing to producers. (Iwai)

Her vision is not merely technology’s social implementation. Consumer behavior transformation, supply chain reconstruction, environmental burden reduction, economic development of producing regions—she seeks to create a new coffee industry ecosystem where all these elements organically connect.

Regarding global decaf market size, estimates vary among research firms. According to Grand View Research, the market size in 2024 was approximately $2.4 billion, predicted to reach approximately $3.3 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, Mordor Intelligence estimates approximately $3.1 billion in 2025, expecting growth to approximately $4.3 billion by 2030. Market Research Future’s analysis, based on broader market definitions, states approximately $19.5 billion in 2023, growing to approximately $26.5 billion by 2032.

All estimates indicate that the decaf market will expand significantly over the coming years. In this growth market, Storyline’s approach of bringing technology to producing regions has potential to establish a unique position no one has yet attempted.

Currently, only three factories worldwide handle decaf processing—in Canada, Mexico, and Germany. This concentration creates an inefficient supply chain where coffee beans travel wastefully around the world. If technology exists in producing regions, this structure changes dramatically. That’s the world we’re aiming for. (Iwai)

The craft decaf challenge that began in a Tohoku University laboratory is now growing into a movement with potential to transform coffee industries across Asia and globally. Iwai’s vision fusing technology, markets, and social contribution demonstrates a new model for deep tech startups.

The location for the production demonstration equipment has been secured in Sendai. Design is largely finalized, with the situation now depending on funding. With tailwinds from rapid decaf market growth and major company entry, Storyline is preparing to transition to the next phase.

We want to create this value in various producing regions. That’s Storyline’s vision. (Iwai)

The day when technology and philosophy infused in a single cup of coffee weave new stories into the global coffee industry may not be far off.