Today sushi is popular in most countries. Ready-packed sushi meals are available in many supermarkets. People eat sushi as a quick, healthy lunch in busy city centres. In some places, sushi outsells sandwiches. Sushi bars – restaurants where customers choose small dishes passing by on a conveyor belt - are a familiar sight.  

Sushi originated as a street food in the crowded cities of old Japan. Modern sushi – raw fish served on vinegared rice – originated in 1824 at a food stall in what is now Tokyo. The stall’s owner, Yohei Hanaya, was the first person to shape the rice with his hands, and then crown it with a slice of raw fish. He called this dish ‘nigiri sushi’. Hanaya’s rice fingers with their fish topping were so popular that nigiri-sushi stalls soon outnumbered most other food outlets in Tokyo.