wagamama, itsu

There is not only a Japanese presence in London, but a Japanese language presence, as well, owing to actual Nihonjin who travel and live in the UK and the contemporary popularity of Japanese cultural products like anime film.

WAGAMAMA and ITSU are successful and tasty meal alternatives to the rather stale British offerings. In Switzerland, these kinds of places offer-up most anything Asian - Thai, Chinese, etc - but don't have the trendy cool typology of Romanized Japanese script.
On the other hand, Chinese ideograms have been very popular T-shirt and tattoo designs in the States, while museums like the Boston Museum of Fine Arts made the Japanese collection its hallmark. The BMFA's early links to Japanese art date to a noteworthy curator, Okakura Tenshin, who popularized the tea ceremony in the West.

Japanese culture has been popular in Paris since the late 19th century, but Florence, Italy seemed pretty locked-in to me (although sister city with Kyoto), regarding outside influences of any kind, while obviously catering to Japanese tourists, who buy up exclusive fashion, taste pricey wines, etc. Vendors routinely use Japanese greetings and BOW to me, and our hotel actually had Japanese cable AND a Japanese cartoon network, where Michael and Jack could watch the popular:

Doraemon, a lovable robotic cat.

Most Japanese live in "rabbit hutches" (Thatcherism), so they tend to spend their powerful yen* on the ephemeral: fashion, travel, food. Nothing too permanent. Italy is a natural, given the pervasive display of ritualized style & flair in packaging, gifting, dining. Some of the best French and Italian cuisine in the world are in Tokyo, which recently passed Paris as the city with the most restaurants earning Michelin stars (197 to 91!)


*When the Japanese government privatized the postal banking system several years ago, it was discovered that TWICE THE GDP OF GERMANY was socked away in personal savings accounts. That doesn't even include the private bank accounts held in Fuji, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Bank of Tokyo, etc. Staggering amounts of cash.