LEAVES COFFEE ROASTERS is the roastery of Yasuo Ishii, a former professional boxer born in Fukagawa, in Tokyo’s Koto ward. He spent twenty years in food and drink from his teens, running and directing restaurants and working as a consultant, until a bag of coffee brought back as a gift by an acquaintance in 2010 opened a new world for him. He opened LEAVES COFFEE APARTMENT in 2016 and started roasting as LEAVES COFFEE ROASTERS in January 2019.

The name comes from leaves that fall once their work is done and feed the new ones on the branch: the idea is to keep growing by always trying something new. Ishii taught himself both as a barista and as a roaster and built his own style. Production runs on two machines, a Probat UG-15 and a Stronghold S7X, and the aim is a clean drink that makes the most of each raw coffee, with a comfortable balance of acidity and sweetness.

In 2021 and 2022 the American coffee publication Sprudge named LEAVES a Notable Roaster, by its own account the first roaster in Japan chosen two years running, and Ishii was runner-up at the 2025 Japan Brewers Cup.

LEAVES is a town roastery, and its English motto is “From the town roastery to the world”. The roastery in Honjo, Sumida, is also its one coffee bar, where visitors drink the coffees roasted there. Through coffee, LEAVES sets out to bring a moment out of the ordinary into daily life and to work towards the health of people and the planet.

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Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: LEAVES COFFEE ROASTERS