"To set the future global standard for Japanese cuisine"

In recent years the number of Japanese restaurants throughout the world has skyrocketed as part of the worldwide boom in Japanese cuisine. Beginning with three-star chefs in France, top chefs the world over are taking a keen interest in the special techniques and flavorings of Japanese cuisine.

However, inasfar as it has been presented to the rest of the world, Japanese cuisine has appeared only in such limited situations as food fairs by a small selection of chefs, culinary courses, and the like. There has been no organized, systematic instruction for the rest of the world as there has with French cuisine. The kind of information foreign chefs have been able to get about Japanese cuisine has been extremely limited and fragmentary.

The biggest problem at present has been the complete lack of a system to cater to the demand throughout the world for Japanese culinary know-how.

To begin with, culinary culture is something that developed in an intimate relationship with the land. It is of course possible to separate Japanese cuisine from the land out of which it came and take it abroad, presenting it repeatedly via demonstrations. While the practice of Japanese cuisine as an ‘ethnic’ cuisine may well be transmitted in such a way, it is a simple fact that, however much it is put into words, people overseas will not really gain an understanding of it as a cultural object.

To truly understand Japanese cuisine requires studying it in Japan, the land of its birth. This is as obvious as the need for Japanese chefs of French cuisine to have experience of studying in France, as the majority of them do.

The quickest way for chefs brought up in a different culture to understand the nature of genuine Japanese cuisine is to study in its heartland, Kyoto. The Academy’s central project is its overseas oriented program for the world’s young chefs of the future to study in Kyoto and there learn what true Japanese cuisine is.

For Japanese cuisine to go properly global and be understood by the rest of the world, a global standard is necessary. Once training at the Academy in Kyoto is over, a certificate will be granted only to those chefs who acquired the necessary knowledge and skills. Kyoto will then guarantee to the world the cuisine produced by its recipients.

Such an explicit statement of what is genuine Japanese cuisine and what is not is bound to dramatically raise the profile and quality of the cuisine worldwide. Rather than something to be prized for its uniqueness, it is hoped that Japanese cuisine will become a jointly-owned international resource: part of the world’s cultural heritage.

Taking all the above, the Academy’s primary duty is to operate a program aimed at educating people overseas in the basics of Japanese cuisine, and bringing overseas chefs to Kyoto for study. We will continue and extend our work, aiming for the globalization of Japanese cuisine, its international development and recognition.

We also aim to give priority to Kyoto as an international city, recognizing its role in the world’s culinary culture. As the heartland of Japanese culture it is the city from which Japan’s culinary culture is diffused – indeed, from where Japanese culture itself is spread. We will be satisfied if, through the activities of the Academy, people from all parts of the world will gain the chance to enjoy the superb culinary culture – the cuisine – that is our inheritance.