NEWSWORTHY
Sushi's balancing act: Tradition versus adaptation
For leading food critic Masuhiro Yamamoto, sushi is part food, part theater, a dining experience unique among Japanese culinary traditions. From the closed-off tuna auctions of Tsukiji to the chefs who meticulously craft morsels of fish for loyal customers, each player has a role ...
Dining out in Tokyo in the age of gastro-tourism
Tokyo: It's the world's greatest dining city. Twenty years ago this assertion — one I delighted in dropping into conversations whenever possible — would have been met with bemusement if not ridicule, especially among the gourmets of Paris or New York. These days, few ...
Social-media influencers exert formidable impact on sushi scene
Social-media influencers are quickly becoming one of the largest forces in Japan's sushi industry, driving customer traffic at some of the country's most renowned restaurants with the tap of a screen. Depending on who you ask, such influencers — users of platforms such as Facebook ...
Demand for precooked ingredients for use by supermarkets and restaurants on the rise in Japan
Demand for precooked ingredients for use by cooking staff at supermarkets and restaurants is increasing in Japan, with many such establishments facing difficulties securing experienced chefs amid an ongoing labor shortage. According to the Japan Ready-Made Meal Association, the country's market for nakashoku, or prepared ...
Japan's watered-down smoking ban clears Diet
Lighting up in public facilities prohibited for the first time as the nation scrambles to combat secondhand smoke in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
'Life or death': Tokyo pub owners fear impact of tougher smoking laws
Hiroshi Yoshida is facing a dilemma. Under an anti-smoking ordinance adopted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly last month, the 73-year-old owner of a small udon (wheat noodles) restaurant in the Takadanobaba district will soon have to make a choice: declare the entire interior nonsmoking or ...
Yuki Tatsumi was waiting tables at an izakaya pub in the city of Kyoto when something on the table caught his eye — a chopstick wrapper folded and fiddled into an abstract shape. It was the catalyst for the creation of a collection that now ...
Restaurant chains are taking the smoking ban into their own hands
Although the anti-smoking laws recently passed by Japan's national government have yet to go into effect, several popular restaurant chains have already gone completely smoke-free. But will that be enough to help make Japan a smoke-free country by 2020?
Tokyo lawmakers approve anti-smoking ordinance as capital gears up for 2020 Olympics
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly passed an anti-smoking ordinance that is stricter than the national version currently under consideration, in a move intended to rein in secondhand smoke.
Kumamoto company turns to brown rice paste in bid to revive Japan's abandoned farmland
Alarmed by an increase in abandoned rice paddies amid the Westernization of the Japanese diet and a graying population, a Kyushu dealer of major agricultural machinery-maker Kubota Corp. began producing rice flour in 2010 as an ingredient for bread and pasta to make up ...
Italy's Osteria Francescana is served world's best restaurant prize
Italy's Osteria Francescana took the top spot at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony on Tuesday, garnering praise for playful use of local ingredients in dishes including "Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano. It was the second time in three years the restaurant, which serves ...
Foreign cooks flocking to Japanese culinary schools amid boom in cuisine's global popularity
With Japanese food enjoying a global boom, culinary training institutes in Japan have seen a surge in foreign students eager to learn how to make the country's traditional cuisine. The number of international students has more than doubled, with 424 enrolled in fiscal 2017 compared ...
