Sushi Reverses Course: Consuming American Sushi in Tokyo 寿司逆流−−東京におけるアメリカ風寿司

Home , California roll, Mayonnaise, Omakase, Philadelphia roll, Ponzu, Rainbow roll

Rumi Sakamoto, Matthew Allen

Sushi Reverses Course: Consuming phenomenon and its specific expression in what American Sushi in Tokyo we refer to as “American sushi” in Tokyo as a contribution toward assessing culinary Matthew Allen and Rumi Sakamoto globalisation. The nascent American sushi trend brings into relief aspects of Japan-US Introduction relations that are seldom articulated in the context of discourse about food – in particular Sushi, not long ago a quintessentially Japanese the continued symbolic dominance of the US in product, has gone global. Japanese food, and Japanese eyes;3 and it also is emblematic of sushi in particular, has experienced a surge in how Japan engages aspects of globalisation, in international popularity in recent decades. this case fetishising a mundane product that Japanese government estimates that outside of has become something new in its reimported Japan there are over 20,000 Japaneseform. By focusing on this relatively recent restaurants, most of which either specialize in phenomenon we also aim to contribute to and sushi or serve sushi (MAFF 2006; Council of complicate the contemporary arguments that Advisors 2007).1 Some estimate the number of characterise cultural globalisation as a overseas sushi bars and restaurants to be unilineal process of hybridisation, often between 14,000 and 18,000 (in comparison, the through localisation. number of sushi restaurants in Japan is estimated to be around 45,000) (Matsumoto Using the cases of two high profile “American” 2002: 2). Sushi stores today can be found sushi restaurants in Tokyo, we show that the across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Russia, Japanese reflexive consumption of “America” Africa, Oceania and the Pacific. Thedemonstrates that the sign of otherness phenomenon has accelerated rapidly since the remains a significant factor in framing turn of the millennium. domestic consumption. The return “home” of the transformed product that is at once both While sushi’s global expansion has attracted familiar and exotic occupies a different the attention of Japanese and global media symbolic space to the ideas formalised in the (Kato 2002; Matsumoto 2002; Tamamura 2004; so-called “McDonaldisation” (Ritzer 1993) of Ikezawa 2005; Fukue 2010) and a number of global production, which dominates much of scholarly works address sushi’s globalthe thinking about globalisation of culture. popularity and its transformation outside Japan While McDonaldisation may entail efficient, (Bestor 2000; Ng 2001; Cwiertka 1999; 2005; standardised and controlled forms of cultural 2006),2 little scholarly or journalistic work hybridisation such as the teriyaki chicken exists on one important facet of sushi’s recent burger, American sushi in Tokyo presents a global growth — namely, the return home of different type of hybridisation characterised by transformed sushi to Japan, at times in barely the playfulness and unpredictability of its recognisable forms. This paper offers an production and consumption. To draw this analysis of this “reverse import (gyaku yunyū)” point out, we employ the concept of “fetish”

1 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF and offer a reading of cultural globalisation beautifully crafted delicate food.6 Indeed, there that is not just about products expanding out are many different types of sushi available in from a centre to the periphery where they are Tokyo: ma and pa sushi stores, often suburban, modified, but is also about producing and or located in entertainment districts, which consuming a fetishised object of desire that has make much of their income from home delivery; accumulated extra social and symbolic capital kaitenzushi (sushi often made by robot, and (Bourdieu, 1977) as it has crossed and re- served on a conveyer belt);wafū (Japanese crossed national borders. As we will see, the style) restaurants with sushi bars; family marketability and desirability of American sushi restaurants that specialise inmoriawase in Japan comes primarily from its symbolic (selection of different fish) sushi; drive-in take- (that is, fetishised) value (we will discuss this in out sushi; upmarket sushi chain stores; street some detail later). side sushi vendors;depa-chika (department stores’ basement food halls) sushi, supermarket Before examining American sushi, however, it and convenience store sushi; and there are the is important to locate this phenomenon within reverse import (American) sushi, which this the historical context of sushi both in Japan and 7 article highlights. Tokyo aside, sushi is its expansion to the rest of the world, especially available in Japan in every village, town and to the United States. city in many forms, and is widely consumed by most people.8 Sushi, Japan and the US Sushi’s emergence in the United States was Edomae sushi, or Edo-style sushi, associated in Japan with the origins of sushi, is said to have initially linked to Japanese diasporas in places been created in Edo in the mid nineteenth like Los Angeles and Hawaii. Although the non- century. Although there were many other, Japanese population found the premise of raw earlier forms of sushi developed in Japan, and fish and rice unappealing, Japanese food, in other parts of East and Southeast Asia, including sushi, became available in major edomae sushi retains its iconic place as the centres in the early twentieth century, starting forerunner of the currentnigirizushi . Its with Japanese immigration and settlements in premise, a rather simple one, was based on the 1920s, particularly on the West Coast. It sticky rice balls loosely held together with a was not until the 1970s, though, that sushi’s mixture of vinegar and sugar, topped with a popularity grew among non-Japanese. This was thin slice of raw fish. This is the basis for most influenced by a number of factors including the contemporary sushi, though outside Japan rise of Japan onto the global economic stage, makizushi (rolled sushi wrapped innori which led to an increasing number of ambitious seaweed and filled with a range of different Japanese chefs arriving on the West Coast, and ingredients including raw fish) andalso to increasing numbers of Japanese uramakizushi (rolled sushi withnori inside) expatriate businessmen and their US have become more popular.4 In Tokyo however, colleagues eating out in their new, Japanese- 9 and in most parts of Japan, the most commonly run restaurants (Corson, 2008: 44-7). Other eaten sushi is overwhelmingly nigirizushi.5 factors that contributed to the late 1970s and early 1980s expansion of the sushi industry The greater Tokyo area consumes a great deal included the West Coast counterculture of Japan’s sushi. Moreover, it is the market movement, organic and health food leader in food trends. In the city there are movements, diet crazes, high-profile actors and numerous tiny, highly rated and exclusive sushi media ‘personalities’ proclaiming their love of restaurants, where expensive and difficult to sushi, combined with Japan’s economic growth obtain ingredients are put together intoand increased visibility around this time

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(Cwiertka 2006: 182; Issenberg 2007: 97; sliced avocado on top, Rainbow Roll with multi- Bestor 2000: 56). Over the next two decades, coloured slices of fish and seafood on top, and sushi in the US became a fashionable food for Spider Roll with fried soft-shell crab are some sophisticated consumers and even a status of the US classics. There are even a few kosher symbol for some. In Bestor’s words, “from an sushi bars for Jewish customers who do not eat exotic, almost unpalatable ethnic specialty, seafood without fins and scales (i.e. crab, then to haute cuisine of the most refined sort, octopus. squid, eels, shellfish etc.), with sushi has become not just cool, but popular” supervising rabbis in the kitchen (Lii 2009: (Bestor 2000: 56-57). 1-2).

A second wave of popularisation took place in Sushi comes home: Rainbow Roll Sushi the US in the 1990s, where sushi’s market and Genji Sushi grew from primarily being a fetishised, exotic food for the wealthy, to also becoming a cheap, Consider the American sushi restaurants in accessible populist food. Takeout sushi from Tokyo, that is, restaurants that flaunt their supermarkets and fast food outletsAmericanism in carving out a place in the proliferated,10 and immigrants from East and market of the world capital of the sushi Southeast Asia entered the sushi business in kingdom. They employ a fusion philosophy, large numbers. The introduction of kaitenzushi using Japanese products and “tradition,” while (conveyer-belt sushi) and sushi robots from incorporating foreign influences from Japan11 made sushi cheaper and even more successful overseas sushi enterprises into their accessible. Today the sushi industry in the US new style sushi to suit the palates and the egos is large, growing, diverse, and idiosyncratic. of their customers. The sushi that is served in Almost any conceivable form of sushi is these new-wave American sushi restaurants available in the US, from supermarket(mostly roll sushi with ingredients other than refrigerators stocking $5 take-out uramaki with raw fish) is both similar to, and distinctively artificial crab stick and mayonnaise fillings to different from most sushi available in Japan. It $200 servings of fatty tuna at an upmarket is this difference that is emphasised – the restaurant like Nobu’s in New York, with foreign flavours of something that is similar in almost everything in between. The popularity style to the everyday sushi available in Japan, and visibility of sushi has also opened the way yet is quite different in taste and concept.14 for other cheap and fast Japanese food such as noodles and curry. We have chosen two of these restaurants, Rainbow Roll Sushi and Genji Sushi New York, The US has provided a prototype forbecause while they occupy quite different contemporary global sushi.12 Certainly many of market segments (the former is a moderately the more adventurous and imaginative rolls upmarket restaurant while the latter is more have originated there. It is the home of various casual and inexpensive), both are owned by uramaki (reverse rolls) – rolled sushi with nori large corporations which have strong links with inside and rice outside – which became popular the US, and both trade on the image of the US in the 1990s because many Americans did not as a marketing device. That is, both foreground like the “chewy” texture of nori on the outside the US as the origin of their concept to sell of their sushi. They preferred it on the inside.13 their product as an object of fetishist desire for Using new ingredients, various rolls were consumption among young, predominantly created in the US and spread to the rest of the female consumers, and to promote the world: California Roll with imitation crab, consciousness of consumers finding something avocado, and mayonnaise, Caterpillar Roll with new, international and interesting in these

3 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF original iterations of sushi, something not Japanese. previously experienced in Japan. The more upscale Rainbow Roll Sushi deploys America as a symbol of cutting-edge sophistication, whereas Genji Sushi New York promotes its products relying on the image of wholesome and organic food supported by “health conscious New Yorkers” (GSNY website).

(authors’ photograph)

Genji Sushi New York is a chain restaurant franchise with 83 outlets in the US East Coast and the UK according to its website. It is aimed at the middle of the market, especially (Source) targeting the lunchtime office crowds, and focusing on take-out and delivery. Introduced into Japan in March 2008, it projects itself as Rainbow Roll Sushi was established in 2001 by “contemporary, casual, stylish” with the WDI, a company that brought Kentucky Fried modifier “beautiful, delicious NY roll sushi” on Chicken, Hard Rock Café, Spago and other its website, and on its menus. This is successful US eateries to Tokyo. Yoko Shibata, emblematic of the focus of the restaurant who started Rainbow Roll Sushi, is a Japanese chain; modern, clean, fast, food that woman who at the age of 30 returned from the emphasises style, health and convenience, and United States, and decided to set up an also incorporates both English and Japanese on “American” sushi restaurant with a “rich and the menu to ensure the foreignness of the casual” atmosphere (Kato 2002: 218-19). The product is emphasised. restaurant specialises in exotic sushi and offers other mostly Japanese cuisine, including salads, Rainbow Roll Sushi is located in trendy vegetable and meat dishes, as well asAzabujūban on the second floor of a building, expensive foreign and domestic wines and which houses an Italian pasta restaurant on the beers, and desserts. In particular the use of ground floor. The entrance is discrete, built unusual combinations of ingredients in the from concrete slab finished with a very rough production of sushi, the high class menu and glaze. Waiting staff, both men and women, the interior decoration lead customers to dressed in black T-shirts and trousers greet assume that the product is special. Rainbow diners, and escort them to tables. In fact, the Roll Sushi is aimed at the top end of the “industrial chic” décor is consistent throughout market, in particular at wealthy, trendy young the restaurant. Bare minimalism is the

4 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF organising theme, and there are few decorations and table ornaments; indeed, grey concrete is the dominant styling motif. There are booths of concrete in stylish industrial style on the first floor, with high backed western- style seating.

Rainbow Roll Sushi’s spider roll (Source)

The pricing of the menu is about average for upmarket restaurant dining in Tokyo; omakase (degustation) menu is available at 5,300 yen (Source) per person and the average price of sushi rolls is around 1,400 yen.15 The drinks list is There is a substantial central table made of extensive; indeed the range ofshōchū and backlit marble, around which perhaps 20 diners sake, and the long European wine list can be seated, there are semi-enclosed split- emphasise both the fusion nature of the level zashiki (Japanese-styled tatami mat restaurant theme, and also perhaps the izakaya booths) that overlook the central table, and (casual restaurant/bars, where drinking is the there are seats available at a sushi bar. With main focus) roots from which part of the fusion the dim lighting, the panopticon-like views from evolved. the central dining table over the restaurant, the monochromatic décor, the Latin American Genji Sushi New York is quite different. From sound track, and the subdued but lively buzz of the outside the message of a fusion restaurant conversation from the partially sound-shielded is very clear. With its lime green NEW YORK booths, the restaurant would not be out of SUSHI sign brilliantly illuminated, it is in fact a place in New York, London, Rio or Sydney. fusion of a fusion. Located in Roppongi – hence Staying with the theme of discreet sophistication, most of the food preparation is accessible to many foreigners as well as conducted behind the sushi bar, in a kitchen younger Japanese – it is in a restaurant mall in that is not visible to customers. Sushi chefs do the basement of trendy Roppongi Hills. It is make sushi at the bar, but they produce only built in light coloured timbers, with rounded rolled sushi; the more exotic sushi that involves ceiling mouldings imitating the inside of a items like seared scallops, cooked prawns, etc. railway carriage, is brightly lit, painted cream is made in the kitchen, as it is in most sushi and lime green, with frosted glass panes restaurants. surrounding the seated area.

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Note the quotation marks around “sushi” Some of the sushi available at Genji’s and the emphasis on New York in the counter (authors’ photograph) signage (authors’ photograph)

Staff were dressed in white chef’s uniforms All seats are non-smoking, which is rare for a with the Genji Sushi New York mark Japanese restaurant.16 There is a takeaway prominently displayed on their breast pockets. glass-fronted display with salads, sushi sets, They also wore black baseball caps with the and other “healthy” foods displayed. The company logo visible. Staff spoke no English, signage is in English only, and the items on the perhaps unsurprisingly, as the company is menu, written in English, have descriptions in focused closely on the Japanese market, rather Japanese. The menu includes a vast array of than the expatriate market. The image of what fusion sushi and donburi (rice with topping) – they were selling – cosmopolitan “New York” California Don, Tuna and avocado Don, Genji sushi to Japanese clients – was the major seafood salad, etc., with prices set at modest marketing point, and this was emphasised by levels. The average cost of a single meal “set” the décor, the menu, and by the food available. was around 1,000 yen. There were only two employees in the entire restaurant with seating Reading the local and the global for about 30, so service was negligible, reflected in the price of the food perhaps. While Rainbow Roll Sushi and Genji Sushi New York still serve some “traditional” sushi (Rainbow Roll Sushi in particular boasts a sushi counter reminiscent of older, more “traditional” sushi establishments where customers watch their sushi being made in front of them), their main selling points are the image of the US as a fetish for either fashion, health, or difference, which is manifest in unfamiliar combinations of ingredients in highly sophisticated presentations. Such product differentiation enables them to locate themselves within the generic sushi market, while selling things that average sushi restaurants rarely incorporate

6 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF into their menus in an environment that is quite cocktails and stylish interior that its website dissimilar to most sushi restaurants in Japan. says is “reminiscence [sic] of a bar in New Clearly, too, the names of the respective York,” it differentiates itself from traditional restaurants are relevant in determining their sushi restaurants, establishing an identity as an clientele and their products: Rainbow Roll American-style “unique” and “playful” sushi Sushi, written in English and in katakana, dining bar (RRS website). It is designed to fit a unsurprisingly makes and sells a large range of customer who is curious, creative, not unusual roll sushi. In addition to “standard” conservative, nor wedded to tradition. This American sushi like California Roll or Dragon perspective was reinforced by the manager, Roll, they offer an array of original roll sushi who informed us that many customers have with interesting and unexpected combinations read about the restaurant in food magazines, of fillings such as fried aubergine, shrimp, women’s magazines, and in newspapers, and jalapeno mayo, raw beef, kim-chee, in very have been curious to see what the “fuss” is all unusual combinations. about (interview). Observing customers consuming the food, it was noticeable that there was considerable exchange of items among diners, and many exclamations of excitement and claims ofomoshiroii! “ ” (“interesting/different”) as people tasted the unusual combinations of ingredients.

The emphasis is on originality, trendiness and frivolity, and customers animatedly discuss the highly original rolled sushi in particular: spider roll (1,250 yen): made from soft shell crab, cucumber, Japanese radish, carrot, lettuce, fat rolled, and served withponzu (citrus based source); Anago sugata roll (1,450 yen): a fat rolled sushi with sea eel, cucumber, carrot, and kanpyō (dried gourd strips) – a fusion of traditional Japanese ingredients with western Rainbow Roll Sushi’s dragon roll (Source) vegetables; or scallop and avocado spicy mayo roll (1,200 yen): also a fat rolled sushi with scallop, asparagus, tempura prawn, cucumber, Rainbow Roll Sushi consciously foregrounds avocado, red pepper, mayonnaise, garlic chips, the signifier “America” in embracing the with a spicy miso glaze. Such iterations of sushi reverse import philosophy. Its bilingual website demonstrate the playfulness with which the describes itself as “a brand new dining space concept of fusion food is produced and launched from America” and states that consumed. Customers have a wide range of American roll sushi “completely throws off the sushi and other dishes from which to choose, preconception of sushi” with the use of non- and many of these are quite original fusions, traditional ingredients. Japanese sushi, it such as tataki (seared) beef roll, ikura (salmon asserts, was “transformed and expressed in a roe) and smoked salmon roll, an avocado and revolutionalised [sic] way in California, made raw tuna stack, or tempura, asparagus and itself into the limelight [sic] of New York, the avocado roll. A survey of online restaurant state for cuisines from all around the world.” reviews by customers also confirms that this With a large selection of California wine and restaurant’s appeal is in its difference from

7 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF standard sushi restaurants in Japan. unconventional toppings) items such as California-don (raw tuna17 and avocado) or donburi with organic green onion and raw tuna salad. Genji’s main selling points are that it is “New York” sushi – it is the sushi that people in New York eat – and that the food it sells is healthy and stylish. In a slightly ironic twist, the chain has employed the same marketing strategy employed overseas to sell this overseas variant of sushi to Japanese; that is, it has emphasised the “healthy” aspect of eating their particular kinds of sushi to an extent almost never seen in Japan. Arguably, within Japan sushi is not perceived as particularly “healthy.” Rather it can be perceived as convenient, cheap, accessible, familiar,or expensive, distinctive and bought for special occasions etc. But the population generally Rainbow Roll Sushi’s tuna and avocado does not need to be educated to eat sushi stack (Source) (ultimately it is simply a matter of choice, unlike in other nations, where marketing Clearly, though, the rhetoric notwithstanding, strategies may involve educating customers the restaurant is not conceptualised as purely that eating sushi is a rational, healthy, and American either. In an interview with aeconomic choice). Japanese journalist, its creator Yoko Shibata maintains that Rainbow Roll Sushi aims not to directly import American sushi but to “pursue the originality of ‘roll sushi in Japan’” and that she wanted to prove that “although roll sushi was born in America, its original came from Japan” (Kato 2002: 220). According to her this is achieved by adding some original elements to American roll sushi, and she further suggests that subtle adjustment of taste and presentation in sushi is something “only Japanese can do” (Kato 2002: 220). National pride and desire for the foreign are thus subtly balanced in the creation of American sushi at Rainbow Roll Sushi. While it has an American “flavour” it also retains a sense of Japanese engagement with the medium. Genji’s seared salmon rolled sushi with Genji Sushi New York also has a large selection salad (authors’ photograph) of American-style rolled sushi (California Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Rainbow Roll), with some “standard” nigirizushi, complemented with Although Genji is marketed as “‘sushi’ from some donburi (rice with in this case rather New York” (the use of English and the

8 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF quotation marks around the word sushicompany’s marketing emphasis on the healthy indicating that their product is foreign, not nature of its products seems to strike a chord traditional, sushi), their menu is somewhat with consumers as something interesting, different from that offered in the New York American and different. Situated in the branches. Genji in the United States, which basement food precinct of a very upmarket part places a strong emphasis on “all-natural … of Roppongi, it is surrounded by expensive environmentally friendly … highest quality boutique food retailers, ranging from Japanese inspired cuisine,” offers its customers delicatessens that sell imported European choices of white, brown, or multi-grain sushi. foods to niche retailers of pastries, specialist And while the latter two were introduced into cafes, and high end restaurants. Roppongi is the menu in Tokyo in 2009, they may appear well-known to foreigners too, and it was exotic/strange to the Japanese palate. In Japan, noticeable that there were many foreigners in the health discourse and the concern over the the precinct throughout the course of our study “obesity epidemic” are not powerful enough to there. The restaurant’s location among other persuade most consumers to eat sushi with “foreign” restaurants and stores that sell brown, let alone multigrain, rice. White rice foreign foods is no coincidence; it clearly aims still is the staple,18 and the recent craze over to link its idiosyncratic health discourse with the health benefit of low-GI whole food in the America as the origin, in contrast to the West has not challenged white rice’smarketing of the American branches of Genji supremacy in Japan. Another type of sushi not which emphasise the health discourse and the on Japanese Genji’s menu, but on overseas Japanese influence. menus, are rolls such as “Tokyo roll” that In these kinds of refracted movements, contain multiple types of fish/seafood in a transformations, and representations, single roll, a practice uncommon in traditional questions of “origins,” “authenticity” and sushi in Japan. On the other hand, Japanese “ownership” take on new dimensions. And in Genji sells roast beef andtakana (pickled this reflexive movement back to Japan, the vegetable) rolls. These are not sold in New transmogrification of sushi as a new object of York outlets, where no meat is seen on the fetishist desire within Japan is driven by the menu. This is probably because, with Japan’s signifiers of “New York,” foreignness, and generally low meat consumption, people are exoticism. And the consumption of it is driven not overly concerned about the risk of by curiosity and playfulness.19 saturated fat in meat products, whereas in the US “no meat” may be more immediately equated with “health.” It seems that, thus, the Engaging globalisation: locating American reality of the “‘sushi’ from New York” is that it sushi is “Japan-inspired American health food” that has been re-Japanised and reintroduced to How then, can this new form of sushi be Japan as something “genuinely” American. located within the current literature on cultural globalisation? While it is tempting to see While interviews with staff at Genji suggested globalisation as a euphemism for that many customers are young office women Americanisation, many authors now view interested in the healthful properties of the cultural globalisation as multilateral and food, Genji Japan in 2009 was not yet convinced complex movements among plural origins and its customers would eat multigrain rice sushi. plural destinations. Concepts of hybridity and Presumably this was too much of a stretch for creolisation have become central to current their Japanese customers, so multigrain rice discussion of globalisation, which emphasise currently is not offered. However, thethe creative and often unpredictable

9 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF interactions between the local and the global, the localised, Americanised product – that problematising the idea of globalisation as displays the explanatory limitations of these homogenisation that informed early accounts of models of localisation and hybridisation. globalisation (Canclini 1995; Appadurai 1996; Hannertz 2000; Pieterse 2004; Kraidy 2005). American sushi, on which this essay focuses, illustrates how the global and the local interact In terms of challenging the idea of globalisation in much more complex ways than one-off as Americanisation or westernisation, Asia has hybridisation between two elements. The come to occupy a significant place. Phenomena “reverse-import” sushi, we have observed, was such as Japanese anime fandom outside Japan in fact a re-domesticated version of what is (Kelts 2007) or the popularity of Bollywood available in the US. That is, although Genji movies outside India (Rao 2007: 57-58) have Sushi New York and Rainbow Roll Sushi been considered as “counter-currents,” in the profess to produce “American” sushi, what they sense of offering perspectives on how non- are serving is fusion food that originated in western cultures have impacted on the west Japan, moved to the US, was modified there for and the world, including the UnitedUS domestic consumption, then was re- States.20 Some writers have examined inter- exported to Japan, where it was Asian transcultural flows that bypass the west recontextualised, further modified and altogether, again underscoring the importance fetishized.22 In short, the so-called American of Asia as a key player in today’s cultural sushi at these Tokyo restaurants is actually a globalistion at a time when Asia is recovering modified Japanese version of American sushi.23 the position of centrality in the world economy that it had occupied prior to the nineteenth The reverse import model thus complicates the century (Iwabuchi 2000, 2004; Nakano 2002; relationship between origin and destination. It Fung 2007; Arrighi, Hamashita and Selden also problematises the assumption behind the 2003). hybridisation model that it is about mixing two separate elements. The concept of cultural On one level, sushi’s global popularityhybridity (e.g. hybridity as mimicry; hybridity constitutes yet another instance of “Asian” as syncretism) retains the notion of origin and cultural influence in other parts of the world. destination, original and copy, local and Its transformation in different places due to the foreign, all of which are seen as binary influences of local markets and cultures could opposites. In the reflexive movement of reverse be understood using hybridisation/localisation import sushi, however, these dichotomies seem models, as an instance of a Japanese original less certain or relevant. When cream cheese inflected with some local flavour. For example, and avocado sushi is served as “Japanese” in customers can buy curry sushi in Singapore, the US, and “American” in Japan, where is the spam sushi in Hawaii, duck sushi in China, kim origin, and where is the location of adoption? chee sushi in Korea, and teriyaki chicken and The case of American sushi enables us to avocado sushi in Australia. Interestingly, understand the specific interactions between though, it is American sushi that has come back the local and the foreign beyond the simple to Japan, not versions from other parts of the model of two elements mixing into one. What world.21 Arguably this is because thewe read from the American sushi movement is experimentation with sushi as fusion in the that localities cannot be defined as simply the United States from the late 1990s was“origin” and/or “destination” of a cultural successful and sophisticated enough to spawn artefact or practice. Rather, they contribute to imitators in other western nations, and now in the production of something that supersedes Japan. And it is this step – the coming home of both, or indeed multiple localities, with the

10 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF product even returning to the point of origin in superceded the original incarnation, has been refreshing new forms. commodified as something that lies beyond the everyday experience of consumers, and has Although, as we have noted, some authors have been marketed as an object of desire for written about sushi’s global popularity and its sophisticated clients who want to try something transformation outside Japan (see introduction) different, challenging and new. American sushi and others have looked at how “foreign” food is unlikely to become a “mainstream” product has been adopted in Japan, the American sushi in Japan, but it has certainly differentiated phenomenon in Japan has largely beenitself in the marketplace from traditional sushi, overlooked. Perhaps more importantly the and the fact that the restaurants we have aspects associated with consumption have focussed on are still in business suggests that often been elided in the context of globalisation their franchise-based market research was theory. That is, in the case of the consumption probably accurate – they will enjoy modest of American sushi in Tokyo, themes ofsuccess in Tokyo’s highly competitive food playfulness and fetish are applied bysector. customers, who are looking to something “different” or unusual. As we have discussed, American sushi demonstrates a specific type of transnational Fetishising American sushi cultural interaction in which a hybrid cultural commodity returns to the purported origin to We propose that American sushi’s consumption become re-hybridised. Sushi is not a ubiquitous in Japan can be understood, therefore, as a transnational commodity that exists globally in kind of playful fetish. We are using the concept identical formats, but rather has transformed of the fetish here as: “an artifice […] It is the itself and accumulated different forms and production of desire according to the double meanings as it has crossed multiple borders. genitive: produced by desire and producing The reflexivity of American sushi being sold as desire” (Jean-Luc Nancy 2001: 7). That is, we something consumed by Americans overseas, are concerned with the symbolic capital which hence desirable to Japanese consumers at is generated by the sign of the fetish. It is home, adds a new dimension of complexity to desire for the sake of desire. Indeed, it is cultural globalisation.25 arguable that fetishes in postmodern Japan are recurring forms of social capital.24 Fetishism in It is clear that the image of America, contemporary urban Japan, and Tokyo in particularly that of “New York” and particular, is a constant motif in advertising, “California”, is very powerful for Japanese entertainment, and consumption in general. consumers, particularly for young, wealthy Blonde boy bands, flaxen-haired pop-singing urban professionals with a sense of adventure. idols, maid cafes, butler cafes, cos-play stores The attraction of consuming “America” in Japan and costumers, gothic lolitas, mature women is powerful, though of course the reality here dressing as school girls in advertising, nudity, can be read as America consuming Japan in the cuteness: these signs of the fetish are apparent first instance by buying into the sushi fad. It everywhere throughout Tokyo public spaces – could be that the prestigious names of in subways, on billboards, in magazines, on California and New York, when attached to taxis, on building sites, on shop hoardings etc. food that otherwise might not appeal to young The fetish to desire the new sushi because it is Japanese, do indeed increase the appeal of such new, American, individualistic and original is food for people who seek difference and consistent with such cultural propensities. something new.26 Currently in Tokyo there are American sushi has become something that has many Korean run sushi stores in places such as

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Shin-Okubo that sell Korean-styled sushi, (whatever that might mean). Eating American including kim-chee, though these are not sushi in Japan is about consuming a new kind marketed as creative and playful reverse of cool and hip food that embodies import sushi; these are catering to both the sophisticated, urban, trendy America that in developing Korean Wave, and the Korean turn adopts and adapts foreign cuisine as its tourist market in that part of Tokyo.27 American own, while also retaining significant references sushi, or the re-engineered Japanese American to Japan’s status as the origin. This desire to forms, on the other hand, targets a different consume the American perspective on sushi is kind of consumer; typically young, Japanese, reinforced by the proliferation of articles in educated, curious.28 popular magazines and newspapers, popular books etc in Japanese on the spread of sushi We suggest that the American sushiworldwide. phenomenon is partly to do with the branding – the fetish – of “America,” and partly a product Conclusion of Japan’s desire for and consumption of (imagined) America. Moreover its symbolic American sushi in Tokyo reflects the value relies on the inherently hierarchical sophistication and unpredictability of global structure of self-other along the hackneyed processes. Starting with an iconic Japanese east/west divide, though with a twist. This twist dish and mixing elements of contemporary US is that the fetish of consuming the otherness of and European influences, reverse sushi America is contextualised within the form of restaurateurs do not simply pay homage to sushi, which carries the signifier “Japan.” And other, foreign roots that their cuisine employs, it is consumed playfully, reflexively. but also redomesticate a product which has become internationalised. The two examples we The foundation for the marketability of the cite can be seen as variations on a theme – that American sushi we have looked at is that of transforming something that was originally America – since 1945 Japan’s dominant other Japanese into something that is simultaneously and a model, a goal of modernisation, and a both Japanese and something else, and source of pop culture to emulate29 – has now marketing it as something exotic and out of the embraced Japanese sushi as its own. Moreover, ordinary. the form of sushi has become something quite different to what it was when it “left” Japan. But it is the unlikely nature of the food that has The “reverse” in “reverse import” sushi takes been re-imported (conceptually) that is most on special significance because of thenoteworthy here; it is the significance of what it hierarchical relationship between the two is they are selling to Japanese people that nations. This is clear, for example, in WDI’s stands out. That is, these restaurants use a concept statement for Rainbow Roll Sushi that global marketing strategy – the same sort of sushi has “captivated countless gourmet strategy employed to sell, for example celebrities and executives” in America. Tokyo McDonalds, Starbucks, Kentucky Fried consumers of reverse import sushi areChicken, etc. – to sell “American” sushi to encouraged to identify themselves withJapanese. In each of the above cases, imaginary US celebrities and executives with concessions have been made to Japanese sophisticated tastes and a penchant fortastes, and menus invariably have “local” innovation and new sensitivity. This is certainly versions of what were once “American food about consuming America, but not in the sense items.” What we see in the American sushi of consuming hamburgers, fried chicken and movement is that global corporate models have apple pie, that is “authentic” Americabeen employed to sell the redeployed,

12 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF relocalised, and reinvented forms of sushi to versions of their own food. And consumers eat Japan in more or less the same way that it with curiosity, playfulness, and at times even McDonalds has been localised for the Japanese with irony, conscious that they are consuming market. The significance of selling sushi to others’ perceptions of something they are young Japanese as an imported concept – a familiar with in its “authentic” Japanese form. fetish in the sense that it is about a manufactured symbolic desire – cannot be It is apparent that sushi is becoming overlooked, nor underestimated. increasingly sophisticated both overseas and in Japan, as it is adapted to new environments and We think, then, that the marketing of sushi as tastes by chefs who demonstrate multiple “American” and “reverse import” in Japan adds culinary influences and agendas. In each of its a new dimension to the understanding of iterations the signifier “Japan” is retained. And globalisation. As we have noted, the current now sushi has come home to Japan in a new literature on cultural globalisation typically guise, which relies on overlaying the emphasises products and ideas coming from “Japaneseness” of sushi with the signifier “the increasingly diverse sources (mostly America, US” in creating its chic appeal in Tokyo. The Asia, and Europe) that are modifiedtight linkages between foreign, cool, hip, (localised/hybridised/indigenised) in their new different, omoshiroi, and the new and original destination. The case of American sushisushi labelled with “the US” as branding, are suggests a further dimension of globalundeniable. This reverse movement, where transformative processes; that is, it invites products and ideas move from the “origin” to examination of how the relationship between other destinations, and then return, the origin and the destination becomes more transformed, to the “origin” replete with added layered, more nuanced than current models meanings, illustrates a complex dimension of suggest. globalisation that has rarely been addressed. Interestingly, Japanese consumers seem to We have also noted that in the way American have embraced the new fetish of this American sushi is sold and consumed in Tokyo, there is a sushi. Perhaps this reflects the growing significant element of playful fetishistconfidence of Japanese consumers to ironically behaviour involved. In this respect this case and playfully consume the other’s version of differs markedly from such instances assomething of their own as a fetish – a sign McDonald’s in Japan (with their muchperhaps that globalisation processes may be discussed teriyaki burgers; less discussed are becoming increasingly sophisticated over time their fried potato withnori flavour, or and exposure to global forces. croquette burger); these products were designed by large US corporations to specifically target Japanese who, they believed, Matt Allen is professor and head of the School wanted familiar flavours in alien food types of History and Politics, University of with fast food convenience; that is Japanese Wollongong, Australia, and aJapan Focus influence inserted into a US-based product associate. Rumi Sakamoto is a senior lecturer which retained the signifier “America.” In in the School of Asian Studies, the University of American sushi, the product with its own Auckland, New Zealand, and a Japan Focus American branding has already become exotic – associate. Rumi and Matt are coeditors of a Japanese product with American influences Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan. inserted – but it has retained the signifier “Japan.” So when it is consumed in Japan it is Recommended citation: Matthew Allen and as though consumers are eating the others’ Rumi Sakamoto, Sushi Reverses Course:

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Consuming American Sushi in Tokyo, The Asia- sushi establishments, where the prices are not Pacific Journal Vol 9, Issue 5 No 2, January 31, printed on menus and customers rely on the 2011. chef to provide then with what he (it is always a male who runs such stores) thinks is Endnotes appropriate for the individual patron. This system is referred to as ‘omakase’ (literally to 1 The number of Japanese restaurants outside trust in the chef’s judgement) and is similar to Japan could be considerably larger than the the French idea of a gustacion menu. government’s estimate; Mr Uesawa, from the Tokyo Sushi Academy, for example, informed 7 Although in places like Shin-ōkubo ‘Korea us in a 2009 interview that there were more Town’ one finds Korean-owned sushi than 30,000 Japanese restaurants overseas, restaurants that sell kimbap (a Korean rice roll though the actual numbers were difficult to get similar to makizushi, but without vinegar and and can be possibly even larger than this. with sesame flavouring, and commonly pickled radish and beef fillings), the reverse import 2 There is increasing interest in Japanese food sushi in Tokyo has been largely an ‘American’ in English-language scholarship. See, for phenomenon. There are a couple of French and example, Rass and Assmann (2010) and Ishige Italian inspired sushi restaurants owned by Naomichi (2001) that examine the history of Japanese, as well as a couple of branches of a Japanese food, as well as Aoyama Tomoko high-profile Hong Kong sushi restaurant, but (2008)’s work on Japanese food in literature. A they mostly serve ‘traditional’ Japanese sushi few others have looked at how “foreign” food plus some US-style creative sushi, rather than such as curry has been adopted in Japan distinctively French, Italian or Hong-Kong (Morieda 2000; Cwiertka 2005). See inflected versions of sushi. One slightly Krishnendu Ray (2004) on Indian consumption different case is a ‘Handroll sushi’ café that patterns in US. opened in 2010 in Osaka, which serves 3 See Gavan McCormack’s Client State: Japan ‘Australian-style’ handroll sushi (uncut roll in the American Embrace (2007) for a detailed sushi that are shorter and fatter than Japanese discussion of what he refers to as the client hosomaki roll, with a larger proportion of relationship between Japan and the US, citing fillings like avocado and deep-fried chicken). both the 1947 Constitution and the US-Japan 8 According to The New York Times (Tabuchi Security Alliance as the foundations for the 2010), the restaurant business in Japan is in dependence of Japan on the US. decline, and sales in 2009 dropped almost 3 4 And this trend has since spread to the rest of percent from 2008 figures. Sushi businesses the world. For example,makizushi now have also suffered, but there has been an accounts for more than 75 percent of all sushi increase in the number of successful low-end sales in New Zealand (Nick Katsoulis, owner of kaitenzushi (conveyer belt-served sushi) such St. Pierre’s Sushi, interview Auckland, 16 May as the 260 restaurant Kura chain, which uses a 2008). low-price, heavily-automated system of manufacture and delivery. 5 Sushi in Japan does include many forms of 9 rolled sushi, but these are commonly seen as According to Hirotaka Matsumoto (a Japanese supplements to nigirizushi, which is far more sushi restaurant owner who became a food popular. researcher), the 1977 publication ofDietary Goals for the United States by the US Senate’s 6 These restaurants are often small, boutique Select Committee on Nutrition and Human

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Needs was instrumental in creating therestaurants with some online presence in conditions in which the sushi boom took place Tokyo), US- style sushi – sometimes called in the US. The report warned readers of the “creative,” “new wave,” “fusion” or “fashion” unhealthy nature of the average American’s sushi without professing to be American – is diet, and recommended that Americans eat less now served everywhere in Japan. In many meat and more fish. This, he argues, in kaitenzushi, as well as casual “sushi dining” combination with the idea that raw food is and upmarket “sushi bars” and fusion healthier than cooked or processed food, made restaurants, one finds avocado, cheese, sushi suddenly popular (Matsumoto 2002: mayonnaise, chilli pepper and other new 10-12). While such views need to be treated ingredients alongside more “traditional” tuna with extreme caution because the ascribed and shellfish. While highly trainededomae causality is rather over-simplified, health sushi chefs and patrons of exclusive and concern is perhaps a long term factor behind traditional tachino sushi are likely to dismiss sushi’s sustained popularity in the US. the new-style sushi, American-style sushi has

10 definitely permeated the mainstream, Matsumoto estimates that the number of becoming one of the factors behind the current Japanese restaurants in the US increased from sushi boom and opening the door to other 3,300 in 1993 to 4,100 in 1995 and that the foreign sushi restaurants such as “French,” increase was largely due to the increase of fast “Italian” or “Australian” (but seemingly never food sushi outlets (Matsumoto 2002: 32). “Asian”) reverse-import sushi shops. For the

11 Japanese sushi industry, part of the attraction A sushi robot shapes rice into uniformly-sized of American sushi is the higher profit margin of pieces. Such a machine can produce up to rolled sushi (up to 80%) compared to that for 3,600 sushi pieces per an hour, and is much more economical than hiring trained chefs. nigiri with raw fish (40-50% on average). With the increasingly competitive market and the 12 Sushi’s incarnation outside Japan, however, is uncertainty that surrounds the price and often quite different from that within Japan. In availability of raw fish such as tuna, even China, one finds Beijing roll made with Beijing traditionally trained sushi chefs have begun to duck; in Hawaii, there is spam sushi; in learn how to make American sushi. Sushi Singapore, there is curry sushi; and in Australia industry magazines now regularly carry reports there is smoked chicken and avocado – the on overseas trends and recipes for new and most popular type of sushi. Check to see creative sushi, and American chefs are invited whether this repeats what is in text. According at seminars and cooking demonstrations for to the owners of Sushi Train restaurants in Japanese sushi chefs (Nikkei BP Net 2002). A Sydney and Cairns, and a variety of other number of recipe books that cover American- owners of sushi bars in Sydney, Australians style rolled sushi have also been published. consume more smoked chicken and avocado 15 than any other single variety. However, raw All prices are as of 2009. salmon and avocado has become increasingly 16 popular in recent years. Currently Tokyo and other Japanese cities have policies that prohibit smoking in public 13 Interview with staff at the Japan Restaurant places. According to one of our informants in Organisation, Tokyo, 11 January 2009. Tokyo, these policies have led to a substantial rise in smoking within Japanese restaurants 14 While the number of self-proclaimedand bars. “American sushi” restaurants is still very limited (we have identified around 20 such 17 While Genji uses raw tuna – by far the most

15 9 | 5 | 2 APJ | JF popular ingredients for sushi in Japan – in their local tastes, as such restaurants are in most ‘California-don’, California Rolls in the US are parts of the world. typically made with avocado (a replacement of tuna), imitation crab or sometimes with cooked 24 For concepts of social capital, see Bourdieu and tinned tuna (known as “sea-chicken” in (1977) and Putnam (2000). Japan). 25 Among obvious questions Japanese 18 See Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (1993)’s account consumers could ask is: can you tell that it of the importance of rice in the Japanese diet. is “authentic” by the number of foreigners eating there? 19 In interviews with customers at the Roppongi Genji restaurant, most said they were initially 26 Presumably, too, for expatriates living in interested in trying the sushi because it was Japan, there is an air of nostalgia attached to “omoshirosō” (appeared curious); others said restaurants with such names. that they liked the funiki (feeling/atmosphere) of the restaurant. There was a strong sense of 27 The Korean Wave, driven initially by the curiosity evinced by the mostly young people popularity of Korean television dramas, has we spoke with. become more sophisticated today, and young pop idols from Korea have a new fan base 20 Of course, Japan occupies an ambivalent among young Japanese women, primarily. The position in the “west and the rest” scheme due areas around Shin-Okubo are crowded with to its early and thorough westernisation and young women buying pop music, and becoming the only colonial power in Asia. We accessories, and eating in Korean sushi need to be careful not to treat Asianrestaurants. ‘countercurrents’ as one monolithic trend. 28 There are, however, a number of fashionable 21 As we have noted, though, Korean sushi in its bars and restaurants, where sushi is served in kimbap form, and with specifically Korean combination with Italian or French food, fillings is available in Korea Town – Shin-ōkubo usually with wine. – in Tokyo, for example, but in terms of a product specifically aimed at sophisticated 29 It should be noted too that the US also consumers, American sushi has a particular maintains a very significant military presence “gloss” that appeals. in Okinawa and some other parts of Japan, strongly influencing Japanese politics and 22 Rainbow Roll Sushi is even considering military strategy, a position that is very opening branches in New York, Paris and unpopular with sectors of the Japanese, and London (Kato 2002: 221). If this happens, this particularly the Okinawan, public. will add another stage to the already complex domestication-exportation process. It opened Works Cited its first overseas branch in Taipei in 2009. ‘About Genji’ Genji Sushi New York. Genji 23 What makes this process of domesticating the Sushi New York, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2008. (link) imported version of the domestic so fascinating in this context is that Japan has so readily ‘About RRS’ Rainbow Roll Sushi. Rainbow Roll mixed fusions into everyday cooking practices. Sushi, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2009. (link) Imported foods such as Italian, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Thai, Mongolian and other Aoyama, Tomoko (2008).Reading Food in exotic restaurants are all domesticated to meet Modern Japanese Literature, Honolulu:

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