Tokyo retained the title of the world's gourmet capital today when the Michelin guide awarded it more stars than any other city for the fifth year in a row.
Tokyo restaurants also won more top awards than last year with 16 given the three-star rating, which Michelin defines as "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". That is two more than last year and compares with 10 for Paris.
Fourteen of Tokyo's top spots serve Japanese cuisine and two French.
In the 2012 edition of the Michelin restaurant guide for Japan's capital, Yokohama and the adjacent coastal area of Shonan, Tokyo sushi restaurant Yoshitake shot to the top ranking in its first listing.
Restaurant Koan in the Shonan area covered for the first time also joined the ranking with three stars, bringing the total three-star haul of the Tokyo-Yokohama-Shonan area to 17.
Tokyo's three-star Japanese restaurants are Araki, Azabu Yukimura, Esaki, Hamadaya, Ishikawa, Kanda, Koju, Ryugin, 7chome Kyoboshi, Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten, Sushi Mizutani, Sushi Saito, Sushi Yoshitake and Usukifugu Yamadaya. The French restaurants are Joel Robuchon and Quintessence.
Ryugin in Tokyo was promoted from two to three stars. A Korean restaurant in Tokyo, Moranbong joined the list with two stars, becoming the highest-ranked Korean restaurant in the world.
Among 247 starred Tokyo restaurants, 52 received two stars and 179 received one star. By comparison, Paris has only 70 starred restaurants in the guide published by the French tyre maker.
The selection features a range of styles of Japanese dining from fugu - puffer fish that can be lethal if improperly prepared - sushi and tempura to "salaryman" favourites such as soba buckwheat noodles and yakitori grilled chicken skewers.
The awards are highly respected in Japan, one of the world's most food-obsessed nations and the guide's latest edition marks continued expansion of Japan's coverage.
Koju's chef Tooru Okuda became the only chef in Japan with five stars after his new restaurant Ginza Okuda opened in August won two stars.
Mr Okuda lost several relatives in Sendai city when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's northeast on March 11th and said sourcing ingredients from there was one way of helping the disaster-struck area.
"I want to support the areas that were affected by the earthquake and I want to use ingredients from the region," he said. He added that even though ingredients were coming from the region that hosts the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant it was not a concern if it was tested for radiation levels. "As long as those foods meet government standards I will use them for my cooking."
The first Michelin restaurant guide, aimed at drivers in the early days of motoring, was published by the tyre company in 1900, and the star rating system was introduced in the 1920s.