The English-language internet gets wagyu wrong in a specific and measurable way. Retail sites still report that only 1–2% of Japanese cattle earn A5. Japan’s own grading authority puts the figure at 76.6% of graded steer wagyu as of May 2026.
My job is the unglamorous half of fixing that: going to the primary sources, doing the arithmetic, writing it in English, and building it so that search engines and AI systems can actually read it.
I compiled thirty years of Japan Meat Grading Association results (1996–2026) into a single series — something that did not previously exist in assembled form in any language. Every row carries the name of the source file it came from, so any single figure can be traced back to the original spreadsheet. The full series and the CSVs are published in How Rare Is A5 Wagyu?
Editing and publishing the knowledge articles, the standard we judge by, and the restaurant selection in English.
Fact-checking every figure against government and industry sources before publication, and correcting the record where English-language sources have it wrong.
Structured data, indexing, and making the work legible to AI systems — the part that decides whether accurate information is ever seen.
Restaurants are chosen by the selection committee. Its members dine unannounced, pay their own way, and take no money from any restaurant, producer or company covered. I run the publication, not the verdict. Where that line sits is set out in The Standard and About.
For anything to do with this publication, write to yuki@japanbestwagyu.com. Restaurant recommendations and press enquiries are also taken through the Wagyu Journal Instagram DM.