First of all, it's a damn good idea to use a lever machine instead of a pump machine, less maintenance, no back-flush orgy at the end of the day.
Opposed to the suggested Londinium L1 machine a few suggested here, I never would go for a single group machine in a commercial environment.
You like to have at least a single and a double basket heated up. Usually hot drinks are ordered in larger quantities, don't have your machine become the bottleneck.
I'm not familiar with the voltages av. in Japan, so buying a machine oversees, might require some modifications, as well vintage machines might have a mercury pstat which you might want to replace. Before buying check if some sort of service/parts are av and how fast av.

At the end of the day it comes down to the budget you assigned, but don't forget that good porcelain, tamper, grinder will need to be bought too.

Out of curiosity, where in Japan is this café going to be? I'm living in Tokyo now and we could always use another good café outside of the Shibuya/Omotesando/Roppongi triangle in which the lion's share of awesome coffee seems to live.

Tritone wrote:Out of curiosity, where in Japan is this café going to be? I'm living in Tokyo now and we could always use another good café outside of the Shibuya/Omotesando/Roppongi triangle in which the lion's share of awesome coffee seems to live.

It is away from Tokyo, but probably too far for an espresso run...

JWStarr wrote:We're in Etajima which is an island off the coast from Hiroshima. There aren't a lot of real baristas around.. it's kind of a coffee culture.. but its over run with instant auto machines.. and very bad decor..