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The story
On 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (Live Commentary) board, a post comparing Italian pizza with Japanese sushi touched off a debate over whether sushi really deserves to be called a “craft.” It started with the claim that “calling sushi cooking is absurd when all you’re doing is cutting fish and arranging it,” which drew a wave of pushback: “sashimi requires learning dozens of different cutting techniques depending on the fish.” The thread gradually drifted into an argument over whether there’s really any difference between working a supermarket fish counter and a sushi chef’s skill, eventually spiraling into an unresolvable back-and-forth over how many types of fish a typical independent sushi shop actually handles.
What people said
Sushi's just a slice of fish dropped on white rice, and people just decide to call that cooking. Calling this "culture" is a stretch at this point.
This post reads like something written by someone who'd slice their own finger with a kitchen knife lol
Steak… just grilled it
Bibimbap… just mixed it together
Sushi chef
Guess both are just "nations of craftsmen," huh
"Sushi chef" is just a self-proclaimed title lol
Seriously, quit posting like someone who'd slice their own finger open with a knife lol
And? Even part-timers at a bottom-tier supermarket can do that.
Even a random housewife could pull it off (the poster uses a crude slang term for "woman" here).
Guess in Japan, if even bottom-tier workers can handle an "easy" job, it gets dressed up as skilled craftsmanship — lol
Oh yeah? Can you make sushi too, then?
I've actually fed my own mother sushi I made myself
Well, guess it's just too hard for some Japanese people, so what can you do
That's because there are fewer types and it doesn't need to look pretty
It's filleted cleanly enough though
By sushi-shop standards it's totally sloppy, and it wouldn't cut it as a business
It IS a business — it's basically fast food, lol
Moving the goalposts and it's still the same thing, lol
You're the one who said anyone can do it easily.
If it's so easy, have you actually fed sushi you made to your family? How'd that go?
Do I really need to reply to every single "anyone can do it" comment, lol
No wonder these guys sound like they'd slice their own fingers off
So in Japan's world of "craftsmen," the number of fish types you handle is what makes you a craftsman now? lol
I'd bet they handle about as many types as a sushi restaurant does
You're saying they fillet 40 or 50 types?
Probably around 30.
I've rarely heard of a sushi restaurant handling 40-50 types in a year.
Conveyor-belt sushi places might, though
If handling a ton of fish types makes you amazing, then every part-timer at a family restaurant with dozens of menu items — and more added all the time — is a craftsman too.
Guess Japan's sushi chefs are on the same "craftsman" level as a Denny's employee then… lol
Well, that's just what I actually heard, so don't blame me
Then whoever told you that got it wrong.
Obviously independent shops have far more skill and knowledge — that's just common sense.
They train for years before going independent, so I've never once heard of an independent shop's level being that low
Did you actually hear this firsthand yourself?
Did someone actually tell you the exact number of types?
What kind of comeback is that? I heard it at a place I go to regularly.
Sushi chefs change what they serve by season, and what comes in — and its quality — varies day to day,
so without the knowledge to serve a wide variety, an independent shop just can't survive
So the actual number is just your guess, then.
Coming from someone who heard it directly, that just sounds like the shop talking itself up
You're the one that's unbelievable here.
To cut to the conclusion: for an independently owned sushi restaurant, having "20 types" of fish is entirely plausible. In fact, it's a very realistic, well-balanced number for a typical independent shop. Compared to major conveyor-belt sushi chains (which always carry 80 to 100+ types), it might seem low, but for an independent shop maintaining quality while restocking daily, it's quite reasonable — for reasons like the following. The reason the number of types is "—
lol, turns out the chains have more
Wow, you sure can talk big based on nothing but guesswork
(that's what's called "boiling tea in your navel" — a Japanese idiom for something so ridiculous it's laughable)
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Becoming a sushi chef is generally understood to require years of apprenticeship at specialty restaurants, mastering different filleting techniques for each fish species, freshness management, and how to handle vinegared rice. At the same time, supermarkets routinely block-cut fish for sashimi at their seafood counters, so “cutting fish” itself isn’t a task exclusive to specialty shops. What the thread really argued over wasn’t so much whether skill is involved, but how many types of fish a typical independently owned sushi restaurant handles — with some insisting around 20 types is plenty, and others arguing it should be 40 to 50, neither side budging. That said, the range of fish handled varies enormously depending on whether it’s a chain or an independent shop, as well as by region and season, and there’s no official statistic on this. It’s worth noting that the specific numbers cited in the thread are nothing more than individual posters’ personal experiences.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (“Nandemo Jikkyo G”) thread “Italy 🇮🇹 → Pizza 🍕, Japan 🇯🇵 → Sushi 🍣.”
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