About

Japan Fine Dining Index is an independent six-dimension rating system for Michelin-recognized restaurants in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.

About the maker

This is a one-person project. I'm Ray H, based in Osaka. I eat too much fine dining, and at some point got tired of Michelin's binary stars telling me less than I needed to choose a restaurant for a specific evening — what I wanted to know was always something more granular: is this place worth ¥30K for a Wednesday in March, with a foreign credit card, and can my Cantonese-speaking parents read the menu? The six-dimension rubric is what I personally use to make those calls. This site is just that rubric, applied consistently to every Michelin-recognized restaurant in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. If you spot something wrong or missing, please write — [email protected]. I read every email.

What this site is

The Michelin Guide tells you which restaurants made the cut. It does not tell you which one fits your trip. The site scores every Michelin-recognized restaurant in three Japanese cities on six independent axes — prestige, diner rating, public attention, value, foreign-visitor accessibility, and rating stability — so a traveler can choose a counter that matches the occasion, the budget, the language they speak, and the booking lead time they have.

Why we built it

Every existing index either reproduces the Michelin verdict, leans on a single review platform, or buries the decision under a magazine layout. None of them lets a foreign visitor filter by "places that take a foreign credit card and have an English booking page." That filter is one of our six dimensions. The other five are equally concrete and equally checkable.

How often it updates

Restaurant data is refreshed monthly from public sources — the published Michelin Guide editions, public Tabelog and Ikyu rating bands, public Google review counts, and public price-range disclosures. Material changes (closures, star changes) are published as soon as we observe them. Every page footer carries the build date; every restaurant carries its own last-modified timestamp in the sitemap.

Independence

We do not accept payment from restaurants in exchange for inclusion, ranking position, or favorable copy. We do not accept sponsored editorial. Where a booking link is an affiliate link, we mark it. The full editorial policy is on a separate page.

Contact

Corrections, takedown requests, factual disputes, and general inquiries: [email protected]. We respond to factual corrections within five business days.