Sir John Cowperthwaite, the late financial secretary of Hong Kong, famously refused to collect economic statistics on the theory that the more his bureaucracy knew, the more it would try to intervene. His wisdom is lost, alas, on Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, which counts more than 20,000 restaurants outside the country that claim to serve its national food. The U.S. alone hosts more than 9,000, a number that has at least doubled in the last ten years.

Now, bureaucrats in Tokyo are worried that the good name of their country’s cuisine is being sullied by chefs who play fast and loose with traditional dishes. They’re working on a certification regime, not unlike the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée for wines and cheeses, that will help diners tell real sushi from fish that simply end their journey in fusion noodle dishes.

It is fitting that this effort to control food and culture will start in France. As we went to press, officials were preparing to release a list of 50 or so purists among the 600 putatively Japanese restaurants in Paris. But the popularity of inventive, quasi-Japanese fare suggests that the official certifiers are a step behind the crowds. The appropriation and creativity that bother the authorities are exactly what has made Japanese food so popular.