CUNNING strategies are in place; secret marketing weapons are primed; armies of highly paid celebrities are positioned; shock troops of sales reps are ready. Tomorrow, across Japan, the 2005 green-tea wars will begin.

As the opening salvoes are fired, Japanese consumers will be pummelled by five different advertising campaigns of unprecedented size and ambition. Vast barrage balloons in the shape of green-tea bottles will float above big cities and Tokyo skyscrapers will be draped with logos of the latest brands. No poster or billboard will be spared.

The ferocious competition over bottled cold green tea, which is sold in Japan as a refreshing drink for long, sticky summers, arises from the huge market. Last year almost 5½ billion bottles were guzzled, beating domestic sales of all fizzy drinks put together.

The profits from green tea have been growing in double-digit percentages for the past nine years. The popularity of green tea — as a healthy, sugar-free drink with plenty of caffeine — also means that softdrinks giants are turning their attention to Britain and the United States.

Ito-En plans to establish a brewery in Europe by 2007. It has spent ten years developing a plantation in Australia that takes advantage of the reversal of seasons to provide fresh green-tea leaves all year round.

On average, the green-tea wars are fought every four years, but there has never been a showdown like this. The rivalry between the four main tea giants — Ito-En, Suntory, Kirin and Asahi — is cut-throat. Each has spent the years since 2001 planting new tea crops that have reached maturity, developing brands and feeling out the market in preparation.

Asahi and Kirin have unveiled new teas. Ito-En, the market leader, intriguingly has changed the recipe of its bestselling O-i Ocha. Raising the stakes further is the surprise entry of the Coca-Cola Company, which has come up with a brand, Hajime. To promote it, it has enlisted the hugely popular Tatsuya Yamaguchi and Shigeru Jojima, from the boy band Tokio.

Suntory’s I-e-mon is being marketed as the connoisseur’s choice, elevating the venerable tea experts who helped to choose the leaves and offering free trips to the historic city of Kyoto as competition prizes.

Yesterday, Asahi introduced Wakamusha, or “young warrior” — an attempt to appeal to the male market by touting its green tea as the drink of testosterone-charged samurai. The advertisements feature Joe Odagiri, a famously macho actor, wielding a samurai sword, the idea being that other brands are not for real men.

Kirin’s Namcha has adopted a softer image and the actress Nanako Matsushima fronts its campaign, which centres on the healthy, non-fattening nature of its green tea. “We actually think that green tea is the only drinks market that will continue to grow,” a spokesman for Kirin said. “People are much more health-conscious these days and are moving away from sweet drinks.”

Ito-En’s strategy has been the most cunning. Its arsenal of celebrities includes Ebizo Ichikawa, an actor from traditional Japanese Kabuki theatre, who lends the tea a supposedly sophisticated touch. The company, whose O-i Ocha has dominated the market since its launch in 1985, has let it be known that the recipe has changed slightly for the first time in 17 years — a guarantee that curiosity will be pricked.

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