"It turned out she was Thai. So I don't want there to be so-called Japanese restaurants if they're inconsiderate towards guests and tourists," she added.

For the Japanese government, authenticating food may be a matter of culture -- but it is also good for business.

Some officials hope to solve the dilemma by exporting more Japanese products, particularly "essential" ingredients such as wasabi spice, "nori" seaweed, bonito soup stock and rice-based vinegar.

The Japan External Trade Organization will release a guidebook in January for Parisians listing 50 restaurants in the French capital as real Japanese establishments, out of the 600 that claim to be.

The Japanese government set up a committee of experts on the food authentication issue in November. It is due to reach its conclusions by February.

For purists, the effort is a way to standardize the food and ensure it remains recognizable for Japanese -- unlike, for example, Chinese food which has long taken a different direction in North America to meet local tastes.

"It¡¯s about chemistry between ingredients," said Shigeo Nakamura, a leading chef based in the western city of Osaka.

For him, California rolls -- a US variation of vegetarian sushi that replaces fish with avocados or cucumbers -- and cream cheese rolls are simply not sushi.

"Tell me, do you really think avocado and rice go together? They don¡¯t go well with each other in the mouth," he puffed.

However, some chefs dismiss the effort as a misplaced cause.

"I don¡¯t see what the big fuss is about. Whether you cut sashimi correctly or not doesn't have anything to do with being Japanese but rather on an individual chef's technique," said Sadaharu Nakajima, who worked in Italy and appears on Japanese television.

Some foreign chefs working in Japan have also criticized the initiative as protectionist.

The government "seeks to attract foreign clients in restaurants certified by the government itself, which is an attack on free business," said Stephane Danton, a French restaurant consultant based in Japan.

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