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Dangerous Sushi

A worry is that the boom in Japanese food will attract would-be chefs who are not adequately skilled in preparing potentially dangerous raw fish. "I've heard from Japanese businessmen that there have been many food poisoning cases [at sushi restaurants] in Moscow," says chef Tadashi Yamagata, who is vice-chairman of the National Joint Association of Sushi Chefs and Sushi Restaurant Owners. "There should be some way to ensure proper training of cooks in raw food preparation and restaurant hygiene."

The concerns escalate as more Japanese restaurants open overseas. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries reckons there are 24,000 Japanese restaurants outside Japan, and those eateries bring in $22 billion a year. In the U.S. the number has doubled to an estimated 9,000 in just the last decade.

That led, in November, 2006, to bureaucrats in Tokyo considering a government-backed seal of approval for Japanese restaurants overseas. The agriculture minister at the time, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, even decreed a $2.5 million budget to make it happen. The plans hit a snag when critics at home and abroad lambasted the effort. (Matsuoka later committed suicide following a financial scandal.)

But don't think Tokyo has given up. Next month a new non-profit outfit, the Organization to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad, or JRO, will use public funding to open offices in Tokyo and Kyoto. The task of the chefs, food company executives, and academics who are its members: Recommend "authentic" Japanese restaurants in an effort "to avoid spreading the wrong image of Japanese food," says Keio University's Aoi, who sits on the JRO's board. Aoi says the JRO won't discriminate against restaurants that aren't owned by Japanese, which account for over 90% of the Japanese restaurants overseas.

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