Food and beverages rich in polyphenols with antioxidant activity are highlighted as a potential factor for risk reduction of lifestyle related diseases. This study was conducted to elucidate total polyphenol consumption from beverages in Japanese people. Total polyphenol (TP) contents in beverages were measured using a modified Folin-Ciocalteu method removing the interference of reduced sugars by using reverse-phase column chromatography. A beverage consumption survey was conducted in the Tokyo and Osaka areas in 2004. Randomly selected male and female subjects (10-59 years old, n = 8768) recorded the amounts and types of all nonalcoholic beverages consumed in a week. Concentration of TP in coffee, green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, barley tea, fruit juice, tomato/vegetable juice, and cocoa drinks were at 200, 115, 96, 39, 9, 34, 69, and 62 mg/100 mL, respectively. Total consumption of beverages in a Japanese population was 1.11 +/- 0.51 L/day, and TP contents from beverages was 853 +/- 512 mg/day. Coffee and green tea shared 50% and 34% of TP consumption in beverages, respectively, and contribution of each of the other beverages was less than 10%. TP contents in 20 major vegetables and 5 fruits were 0-49 mg and 2-55 mg/100 g, respectively. Antioxidant activities, Cu reducing power, and scavenging activities for DPPH and superoxide, of those samples correlated to the TP contents (p < 0.001). Beverages, especially coffee, contributed to a large share of the consumption of polyphenols, as antioxidants, in the Japanese diet.