Japan Matcha & Tea Stock & Price Monitor

Track stock, prices, purchase-limit notices and new products at official Japanese tea-shop online stores — d:matcha Kyoto, Horii Shichimeien (Uji) and Yamamotoyama (Tokyo) — in one run. You get one row per size / tin (variant) with price, in-stock flag, SKU, purchase-limit notice and URL, and in monitoring mode only what changed since the last run: back in stock, sold out, price up, price down, new product. No coding needed.

Built for tea retailers, cafés, importers and wholesale buyers who want to follow availability and prices of Japanese matcha and tea without checking each website by hand.

What data can you extract?

Field	Description
storeName, storeId, storeDomain, market	Which official store the row comes from
title, variantTitle	Product title and size/tin (e.g. 抹茶（自園） 無門 / 20g)
teaCategory	matcha, gyokuro, kabusecha, sencha, hojicha, genmaicha, bancha, black_tea, other_tea, teabag, gift_set, sweets, teaware, event, other
price, compareAtPrice, currency	Current price (JPY) and the store's compare-at price if set
available	The store's in-stock flag for that exact size
sku, productId, variantId, handle	Identifiers (SKU only where the store sets one)
purchaseLimitQty, purchaseLimitText	Per-customer limit found in the product description (e.g. お一人様3点まで → 3), a short excerpt (max 120 characters) of the notice, or the store's purchase-limit tag (e.g. tag: 抹茶購入制限商品)
changeType, changes	restocked, sold_out, price_up, price_down, new_product, new_variant, purchase_limit_changed, removed, first_run, unchanged
previousPrice, previousAvailable, priceChange, priceChangePct, previousRunAt	Values at the previous run and the difference
productUrl, variantUrl, imageUrl	Product page, page with the size preselected, and the image URL on the store's CDN (reference only)
shippingWeightGrams	Shipping weight set by the store (package weight, not tea content)
publishedAt, productCreatedAt, variantUpdatedAt, firstSeenAt, scrapedAt	Timestamps

Product descriptions are not copied — only a short purchase-limit excerpt. Images are referenced by URL, not downloaded.

Why monitor Japanese tea shops?

1. Stock monitoring for matcha — popular matcha grades go out of stock and come back. Schedule the Actor with changeTypes: ["restocked"] and get only the sizes that are available again.
2. Price tracking — several Japanese tea shops revised prices during the 2025 matcha shortage. price_up / price_down rows give you the date, old price, new price and percentage.
3. Retail and wholesale purchasing decisions — see per-size availability and purchase-limit notices across several shops at once to plan what to stock.
4. Price research and market reports — a full snapshot of every product, size and price, ready for a spreadsheet or BI tool.
5. AI agents / RAG — the Actor is callable through the Apify MCP server, so an AI assistant can answer "which matcha sizes are in stock at d:matcha right now?" with live data.

How to use it (no coding)

1. Click Try for free.
2. Pick the tea shops and categories (default: all shops, matcha only).
3. Choose Mode: changes (monitoring) or snapshot (everything now).
4. Click Start. The first changes run stores a baseline and returns everything as first_run.
5. Open Schedules and run it every few hours or daily. From the second run on you get only the changes — connect a webhook, Slack, email or Google Sheets integration to be notified.

Input example

{
  "mode": "changes",
  "stores": ["dmatcha", "horii-shichimeien", "yamamotoyama"],
  "categories": ["matcha"],
  "keywords": [],
  "changeTypes": ["restocked", "price_up", "price_down", "new_product"],
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "stateStoreName": "japan-matcha-tea-monitor",
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

• mode — changes returns only differences from the previous run; snapshot returns every matching variant. When omitted (API calls), the default is snapshot.
• categories — defaults to ["matcha"]; pass [] for every product (Yamamotoyama also sells nori, which falls under other).
• keywords — optional product-name filter (e.g. 奥の山). Store titles are Japanese; English/Chinese tea words such as matcha → 抹茶 or 焙茶 → ほうじ茶 are retried automatically when they match nothing.
• stateStoreName — a named key-value store in your own Apify account that remembers the previous prices and stock. Use a different name for each schedule with different filters.

Output example

{
  "storeId": "horii-shichimeien",
  "storeName": "堀井七茗園",
  "storeDomain": "horiishichimeien.com",
  "market": "japan",
  "productId": "7061885681801",
  "variantId": "40895584731273",
  "handle": "matcha-mumon",
  "title": "抹茶（自園） 無門",
  "variantTitle": "20g",
  "sku": null,
  "productType": null,
  "vendor": "堀井七茗園",
  "tags": ["抹茶再販", "抹茶購入制限商品", "自園購入制限商品"],
  "teaCategory": "matcha",
  "price": 4860,
  "compareAtPrice": null,
  "currency": "JPY",
  "available": false,
  "shippingWeightGrams": 100,
  "purchaseLimitQty": null,
  "purchaseLimitText": "tag: 抹茶購入制限商品",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0566/5308/6857/products/MG_8633.jpg?v=1666257268",
  "productUrl": "https://horiishichimeien.com/products/matcha-mumon",
  "variantUrl": "https://horiishichimeien.com/products/matcha-mumon?variant=40895584731273",
  "publishedAt": "2025-03-13T13:22:57+09:00",
  "productCreatedAt": "2022-10-20T14:03:28+09:00",
  "variantUpdatedAt": "2026-10-10T18:01:14+09:00",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-10T11:53:55.844Z",
  "changeType": "sold_out",
  "changes": ["sold_out"],
  "previousPrice": 4860,
  "previousAvailable": true,
  "priceChange": 0,
  "priceChangePct": 0,
  "previousRunAt": "2026-10-10T08:53:55.844Z",
  "firstSeenAt": "2026-10-01T08:00:00.000Z"
}

(The product data above is real; the change values illustrate how a sold_out row looks.)

Field notes

• changeType is the most important change; changes lists all of them (a size can be restocked and price_up in the same run).
• removed rows describe a size that disappeared from the store since the last run; they carry the last known title and price (previousPrice) with price and available set to null. Removed rows are only reported when the whole catalogue was read successfully.
• purchaseLimitText is filled when the description mentions a limit or the store tags the product as purchase-limited; purchaseLimitQty only when a number is stated. Limits applied only at checkout are not visible.
• Prices are the price shown in each store's product feed in JPY.
• The RUN_REPORT record (default key-value store) has a per-store summary: HTTP status, variants read, rows returned, change counts, whether the baseline was updated, and a plain-language hint when a store returned nothing.

How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event: a tiny start charge of $0.00005 (Apify's default Actor Start event, charged once per GB of memory; this Actor runs on 1 GB) plus a per-row price:

Event	What it is	Price
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	Once per run (per GB of memory)	$0.00005
Result row (apify-default-dataset-item)	Each row returned	$0.003 (FREE and BRONZE plans) · $0.002 (SILVER and above)

In changes mode you pay only for rows that changed, so a monitor that finds 5 changes costs about $0.015 on the FREE plan. A matcha snapshot of all three stores is about 55 rows (≈ $0.17 on FREE); every product in every store is about 510 rows (≈ $1.53). Use maxItems to cap spend. Platform usage (compute) is included in these prices; a run takes about 10 seconds.

Integrations: API, MCP, and AI agents

This Actor is read-only: it only reads public product feeds. It never logs in, adds to cart, orders or changes anything on the stores.

API (curl)

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/datalab-jp~japan-matcha-tea-stock-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"mode": "snapshot", "categories": ["matcha"], "maxItems": 1000}'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("datalab-jp/japan-matcha-tea-stock-monitor").call(run_input={"mode": "snapshot", "categories": ["matcha"], "maxItems": 1000})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('datalab-jp/japan-matcha-tea-stock-monitor').call({ mode: 'snapshot', categories: ['matcha'], maxItems: 1000 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

The synchronous run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint waits up to 300 seconds; a full run normally finishes in well under a minute.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Add the Apify MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client and ask, for example, "Which matcha sizes are in stock at d:matcha and Horii Shichimeien right now?" The agent calls this Actor with mode: "snapshot" and the matching stores and categories.

Related Actors

Other Japan data Actors by the same developer:

• Japan Knife Restock & Price Monitor — stock and price changes at Japanese knife stores
• Japan Denim Restock & Price Monitor — stock and price changes at Japanese denim stores
• Mercari Japan Scraper – Listings & Item Details — Mercari listings and sold prices
• Yahoo Auctions Japan Scraper – Live, Sold & Flea Market — Yahoo! Auctions and Yahoo! Flea Market listings

FAQ

Is this legal? The Actor reads only the public product feed (/products.json) that each store serves to every visitor, without logging in or bypassing any access control, one request at a time with pauses. It returns factual data (names, sizes, prices, stock) and does not copy product descriptions or images. Each store's robots.txt and terms were read in full before the store was added; stores whose terms restrict automated access or use of their information are not supported. You are responsible for using the data in line with applicable laws and each store's terms.

Can I use it through the API? Yes — see the curl, Python and JavaScript examples above. Schedule it in Apify and read the dataset, or connect a webhook.

Can AI agents use it? Yes. It is read-only, needs no credentials for the stores, and every input has a default, so an agent can call it safely.

How does change detection work? After each run the Actor saves the price and stock of every size in the named key-value store stateStoreName in your account. The next run compares against it. The first run per store (or a new store name) returns everything as first_run.

Why is my favourite tea shop not supported? A store is added only if it serves a public product feed and its terms of use, read in full, do not restrict this kind of use. Several well-known shops were checked and left out for that reason.

Does it buy or reserve items? No. It does not add to cart, check out or reserve anything, and it does not help get around purchase limits. It only reports what the stores publish.

Do I need a proxy? The default uses Apify's datacenter proxy because Shopify-based stores rate-limit busy cloud IP addresses. Residential proxy is not needed. If a store answers HTTP 429 repeatedly, the run report says so; run again later.

Disclaimer

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any of the tea shops listed. Store names are used only to identify the data source. Data is provided as published by the stores at the time of the run and may change at any time.

中文简介

• 监控 d:matcha Kyoto、堀井七茗园、山本山等日本茶铺官方网店的抹茶与日本茶库存、价格、限购说明和新品。
• 每个规格（克数/罐）一行：价格、是否有货、SKU、商品链接；监控模式只返回与上次相比的变化（补货、售罄、涨价、降价、新品）。
• 适用于零售与批发的采购判断、价格调研和库存监控；只读取公开商品数据，不会下单或加入购物车。