Global Policy Forum

By Howard W. French

Her surprise only deepened as she watched the regulars order custom-made sushi dishes — combinations like eel, cucumber and cream cheese, or flying-fish roe, red chili and mayonnaise.

But in an era of boomerang globalization, with Starbucks selling espresso to Italians, and California cabernets airing on European tables, Ms. Shibata decided that when she moved back to Tokyo she would bring American-style sushi with her.

Last year, Ms. Shibata opened her restaurant, Rainbow Roll Sushi, and in testament to her inspiration, business is booming, despite Japan's difficult economic climate. Ms. Shibata was a pioneer in a culinary cross-fertilization that has brought several inventive sushi restaurants here recently, mostly in upscale neighborhoods like Azabujuban, where cosmopolitan young professionals often gather.

The high-speed ricochet of American and other influences across the Pacific is all the more remarkable considering that sushi itself was one of the more exotic transplants to the West.

The decor in Rainbow Roll Sushi reflects the global hybridization as brazenly as the food itself. Traditional Japanese sushi restaurants, especially upscale ones, display a Zen-like austerity dominated by sober cedar accents, from slatted doors to the glistening dining counters, where the food is often served without plates.

Rainbow Roll Sushi, on the other hand, has gray felt wallpaper and matching low slung chairs with a long marble counter and gently wafting Hawaiian music by day and bouncy Latin tunes by night. "I designed everything myself, from the uniform and menu to the tableware," said Ms. Shibata, 30, who calls herself Rainbow Roll Sushi's "producer" rather than its manager or director. "Ordinarily, with a decor like ours, you would expect to hear jazz, wouldn't you? We aim for anything but the ordinary."

At another flourishing, newfangled sushi restaurant, Central Mikunis, near Tokyo Station, the opulent design marries Renaissance Europe with contemporary Los Angeles, with its vaulting, painted ceilings and brushed aluminum walls. The food at Central Mikunis is served at barside with revolving conveyor — an innovation introduced to traditional sushi bars in the late 1960's — that bring an array of delicacies within reach.

As with Rainbow Roll Sushi, though, the real departure from tradition is in the menu. One of Mikuni's specialties, for example, is a sushi sandwich, made with tiny croissants.

Rainbow Roll has succeeded with the affluent, well-traveled people in their 30's. But it has also been a hit with curious housewives. Men in their 40's and older, though, have mostly stayed away, except when dragged there by daughters or dates.

"In a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant, when you are finished eating, you must get up and leave," said Kinuko Sawayama, 23, one of two smartly dressed university students having lunch together. "Here, they have sofas and comfortable chairs, and in the evening there is a lively ambiance."

"You can really feel the internationalization that Japan is undergoing through places like this," said her friend Lisa Yanagisawa, also 23. "And the delicious combinations are changing the way that younger people, like me, think about Japanese food."

Many sushi chefs scoff at such recipes, as they stick to their traditional ways. "I can't comment on this, because the reaction of each sushi master is different," said Shigeo Mori, a famous chef who heads Japan's sushi chefs union. "Some of us accept the new imports, but others don't regard it as sushi at all."

At bottom, the blossoming of new forms like these in one of the most prestigious and tradition-bound areas of the country's cuisine reflects the tensions between profound, yet seemingly contradictory traits of Japanese culture: a reverence for heavily ritualized techniques, or kata, and an eager acceptance of imported innovations and trends.

Experts say that while maybe imperceptible to diners, sushi making methods have changed over, well, centuries.

"What we call onigiri today may seem traditional, but it doesn't have such a long history, only to the mid-1800's," said Kazunari Yanagihara, a television chef, teacher and culinary critic, referring to the vinegary rice — squeezed into thumb-like segments — that is the basis of most sushi.

Today fatty, succulent tuna, or maguro, is so popular in sushi cuisine that for most Japanese eating sushi means eating tuna. A little more than a century ago, however, Mr. Yanagihara said maguro was not popular at all.

"Since World War II our tastes and cooking methods have been changing more and more rapidly," he said. "If you compare the food of today to the food of the 1970's, there is probably twice as much fat being used. More and more, young people want fatty dishes, and these kinds of tastes are making foreign cuisines fashionable."

Mr. Yanagihara said critics who would dismiss the use of ingredients like cream cheese and mayonnaise in what many still call "re-imported sushi" as nothing more than trendiness should be mindful of Japanese culinary history.

"Upper-class people used to dismiss sukiyaki, too, which was invented a little more than century ago," he said. "Today, though, it is seen as genuinely Japanese cuisine. It is possible that some day this new sushi, with things like avocado and mayonnaise will become accepted, or even celebrated. Only time will tell."

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