Japanese definitely do dink coffee in the morning, but I do not think to the extent like in the U.S. Traditionally Japan had Kissatenn (喫茶店) which is like coffee house in Europe where people spent hours there just with one cup of coffee. One thing read about Starbucks in the U.S. is that more than half of sales take place before 9 a.m. on weekdays. Corporate at Starbucks has active project seeking increase of sales after 9 a.m. at their stores in the U.S. However, I read that in Japan such is not the case and sales of Starbucks in Japan is more evenly distributed throughout the day.

Also, generally all around the world (not just in Japan) breakfast seems to be hardest meal habit to change for people. McDonalds came to Japan in early ‘70s and quickly became a hit but Japanese McDonalds did not serve breakfast till late ‘80s. When McDonalds introduced breakfast in Japan it was slow going and was not immediate success like hamburger for lunch and dinner. Back then fast food for breakfast was still totally new concept in Japan. If there was fast food breakfast in Japan back then, then common scene was stand-up noodle shop at train stations (立ち食いうどん、そば) serving udon and soba noodles eating standing up. Japanese salary men stopping by at those stand-up noodle shops at train stations in the morning before heading to their work. Also, muffin with eggs and sausage, scrambled eggs with hash browns, and hotcakes for breakfast were totally new concept for many Japanese back in mid ‘80s. Actually hotcakes were commonly found items in Japanese restaurants and Kissatenn (coffee house) way before McDonalds introduced hotcake breakfast in Japan and was called Pancake(パンケーキ). However, Pancake was commonly eaten as mid afternoon snacks and idea of eating something that sweet in the morning was something many Japanese initially could not understand.

As for commuting habit in Tokyo, most commute by public transport and I think it is still standard among Japanese corporate that official working hour is 9 to 5. I do not think flex time or other type of flexible working hours are not that common in Japan, yet. Hence, majority of morning commute happen at very narrow time where everybody tries to get to work around 9 a.m. I remember more than 10 years ago rail companies in Tokyo had campaign encouraging morning commuters to commuter little early or little later to ease congestion of morning commute trains into the city. For evening commute people go home at various time due to overtime work and after work social events. So evening commute trains in Tokyo tend not to be as packed as morning commute trains. During morning commute majority of people try to get to work (center of Tokyo) by 9 a.m. which make morning commute trains into Tokyo extremely packed. However, flextime concept is not as common as in the U.S., those salary men in Tokyo had no choice but to commute at a certain time in the morning. This attempt by rail companies to ease the congestion in the morning did not look like worked out.

Now morning drinking and eating habit of Japanese is catching up with the morning habit in the U.S. Same time waist size of Japanese is catching up with waist size of the U.S.