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The story
On the 11th, “Sushi Con 2026,” said to be the largest sushi festival in the United States, was held in New York, with more than 60 companies — including Imuraya and Otafuku Sauce — exhibiting. Crowds gathered for a bluefin tuna butchering show and tastings of Japanese ingredients like wagyu beef and wasabi, and visitors could reportedly buy anything they liked at a discount on the spot. On 5ch, some posters waxed nostalgic about the long-standing high quality of New York’s sushi restaurants, while others were puzzled to see Imuraya and Otafuku Sauce at a sushi event. Opinion also split over the fact that, even though the event was organized by a Japanese food wholesaler, most local sushi restaurants are actually run by Chinese or Korean owners — some called this “no benefit to Japan,” while others countered that it still counts as “opening up new markets.”
[Kyodo, New York] “Sushi Con 2026,” said to be the largest sushi festival in the United States, was held in New York on the 11th, drawing crowds of restaurant operators and Japanese food fans riding the wave of the Japanese food boom. The hands-on event offered unlimited tastings, showcasing the appeal of authentic Japanese and Asian ingredients and seasonings to the world.
More than 60 companies from Japan and abroad, including Imuraya and Otafuku Sauce, exhibited at the venue. Visitors feasted on fresh bluefin tuna, wagyu beef, nori, wasabi, tea, and cooking sauces, and watched in excitement as a bluefin tuna weighing over 300 kilograms was broken down in a live demonstration.
Any ingredients visitors took a liking to could be ordered on the spot at special discount prices, with home delivery also available, organizers said.
Source: 47news.jp / Original article here
What people said
Back when I lived there over 20 years ago, chefs from Tokyo sushi restaurants were already coming over to train.
Same as the Chinese restaurants in Yokohama Chinatown — it's hit or miss.
I hear the Korean-run sushi places are pretty high quality too.
I heard people say the same thing about sushi places in Indonesia.
If fish stocks drop any further, we're the ones who'll end up in trouble.
there's a huge range, and as long as it tastes good, that's fine by me.
Food culture only gets richer by spreading around the world anyway.
Japanese people butcher other countries' cuisine all the time, so we're in no position to get mad when others do whatever they want with ours.
Though most of the backlash happens because places serve garbage while calling it "authentic."
"Otafuku Sauce"
…wait, what?
If you mean conveyor-belt sushi culture rather than classic sushi restaurants, all sorts of things turn up.
Maybe it's for some creative sushi made with the sauce?
They're a Japanese food maker with an overseas presence, so it's probably just there for show.
Japan has both patterns — butchering other countries' food beyond recognition, and sticking strictly to the original recipe — so I'd say Japan actually keeps a pretty good balance.
As for sushi, I think it's great that people are experimenting freely, but wrapping it in bacon instead of nori feels like it's straying way too far from what sushi even is.
Depends on your definition of makizushi, but even traditional Japanese sushi doesn't strictly require nori — kombu-wrapped sushi and takana-maki (mustard-leaf rolls) being prime examples.
Bacon rolls or prosciutto rolls actually sound tasty.
Filling would be asparagus and mayo, I'd guess?
I honestly can't understand why you'd find that mysterious.
Well, yakiniku has a pretty short history in Japan anyway — beef and pork were never dietary staples there.
And the organizer of this event is an American Japanese-food wholesale company.
In other words, almost none of this actually benefits Japan.
You don't even know the phrase "market development," yet you're so confident about this… lol
What's even wrong with that?
In Japan too, ramen and curry shops are run by Japanese people despite those dishes not being originally Japanese.
Sushi might go the same way eventually.
If local people are the ones running the sushi shops, there's no inner conflict holding them back.
They'll just season it however they like, with whatever condiments they prefer.
At that point, it wouldn't be surprising if Japanese-style sushi stopped suiting their tastes at all.
Those American dramas, streamed worldwide, are already doing the advertising for us.
Go promote some other dish instead.
If you copy it without real Japanese soy sauce, isn't that basically just selling garbage?
Alright, got it — so we should be spreading Sugakiya ramen around the world instead.
Bare-handed sushi has a secret ingredient: the hand-sweat and hand-oil of the old guy who shaped it.
Famous sushi chefs' hand-sweat and hand-oil are the tasty part, lol
Apparently in some US states, local ordinances require sushi chefs to wear plastic gloves.
According to Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (veteran Japanese TV personality), the palms of somewhat older women release glutamic acid, which is apparently why it makes nukazuke pickles taste better.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
In recent years, the Japanese government has been promoting “Japanese food” PR events overseas as part of its push to expand exports of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products and food. Events like this one, where visitors can sample and buy bluefin tuna, wagyu beef, and condiments all in one place, fit into that broader strategy. At the same time, Japanese food’s rollout overseas is often handled by local wholesalers and foreign-born restaurant owners, and the thread raised the export-strategy question of “who actually benefits?” Some also noted that, just as foreign-born dishes like ramen and curry became fixed in people’s minds as “Japanese food,” sushi too may keep being reinterpreted abroad and drift further from its original form over time. This tug-of-war between “authenticity” and “localization” in food culture is a theme likely to keep resurfacing as long as the Japanese food boom overseas continues.
*This article is an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Sushi Con 2026] America’s Biggest Sushi Festival Held in NY, Promoting the Appeal of Japanese Food.”
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