Japan's global "sushi police"

DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP

The latest from the Financial Times' Tokyo bureau:

Alarmed at the ballooning number of restaurants that purport to be Japanese, the government has decided to take action. The agriculture ministry is to start certifying "authentic" Japanese restaurants overseas, possibly as early as this year.

"The Japanese food boom is a great thing, but what you find in many restaurants is not authentic Japanese food," says one agriculture ministry official. "We want people to know what proper Japanese food tastes like, so its fans will increase."

Related stories from the FP archives:

• How Sushi Went Global, by Theodore C. Bestor
• Japan's Gross National Cool, by Douglas McGray