The Michelin Guide cut two Tokyo restaurants from its top rank, reducing the city’s three-star winners for the first time. 
 
 Araki and Hamadaya were culled from the list, leaving the capital with 15 three-star holders in the 2013 guide, down from 17 in 2012, the Clermont-Ferrand, France-based publisher said yesterday in Tokyo. The edition goes on sale Dec. 1. 
 
 The Japanese capital still has more three-star restaurants than any other city, a distinction it took from Paris starting with the 2010 edition. Diners spent 1.4 percent less at restaurants in the “dinner” category in Japan, where slumping economic growth has damped consumer sentiment, according to Japan Food Service Association data. 
 
 “The technique and quality of Japanese cuisine is rising year-by-year,” Michael Ellis, international director for Michelin (ML) Guides, said yesterday in Tokyo. “The country is playing a huge role in the world of gastronomy.” 
 
 The 15 restaurants left on the guide’s three-star list are all returned from last year. 
 
 Three stars mean exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey; two are for excellent cooking, worth a detour; one denotes a very good restaurant in its category. Michelin has produced restaurant and hotel guides since 1900 and published the Tokyo 2008 guide, its first for the city, with eight three- star winners. 
 
 Araki, Hamadaya 
 
 Araki, a sushi restaurant, is closing in Tokyo, Ellis said. Hamadaya, which serves Japanese cuisine in the Nihonbashi district and in Tokyo’s Midtown, was reduced to two stars, Ellis said without elaborating. 
 
 Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten, a Ginza district sushi restaurant, was awarded three stars for a sixth time. 
 
 “All we do is make every effort to make sure we don’t go down to two-stars,” Jiro Ono, the restaurant’s owner, said yesterday at the announcement ceremony in Tokyo. 
 
 Two-star establishments rose to 58, including one hotel restaurant, from the 57 in last year’s guide, while establishments earning a single star dropped to 215 from 219 on the 2012 list, according to the Michelin website. 
 
 Michelin awarded three stars to 12 restaurants in western Japan, which includes Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, in October. Another 51 venues and one ryokan, or inn, in the area gained two stars, while 210 restaurants and three ryokans won one. 
 
 Michelin & Cie., a tiremaker, has been publishing its restaurant and hotel guides since 1900, at the start of the automotive era. Distributed for free until 1920, the guide was originally meant for chauffeurs and included tips on using and repairing tires. 
 
 “The Michelin Guide Tokyo Yokohama Shonan 2013” is available in Japanese and goes on sale in Japan on Dec. 1. 
 
 Tokyo Area Three-Star Restaurants: 
 
 Azabu Yukimura Esaki Ishikawa Joël Robuchon Kanda Koan Koju Quintessence Ryugin 7chome Kyoboshi Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten Sushi Mizutani Sushi Saito Sushi Yoshitake Usukifugu Yamadaya 
 
 (Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. He is U.K. and Ireland chairman of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Opinions expressed are his own.) 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Yuki Yamaguchi in Tokyo at yyamaguchi10@bloomberg.net; Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Wong at swong139@bloomberg.net 

 The sun goes down between skyscrapers in Tokyo May 11, 2012. 
 
 TOKYO Tokyo retained its tasty title as the Michelin guide's world gourmet capital on Wednesday, although the number of three-star restaurants fell slightly. 
 
 This is the sixth consecutive year the capital of food-obsessed Japan has been awarded top honors by the publishers of a guide book regarded by many as a fine-dining resource. 
 
 Tokyo was also lauded for having the most restaurants bearing three-stars -- the Michelin guide's top honor -- even though the number slipped to 14 from 16 last year. 
 
 "Japanese gourmet cooking is even more creative, inspired and inventive than in the past," said Michelin Ellis, international director of the Michelin guides. 
 
 "The quality and skills displayed by chefs in the Kanto region (around Tokyo) are higher every year and confirm Japan's ranking among the world's leading countries in terms of fine dining," he said in a statement. 
 
 The awards are highly respected in Japan, a nation with a long tradition of food appreciation. The 2013 edition of the Michelin guide lists restaurants in Tokyo, neighboring Yokohama city and the coastal Shonan area. There is also a separate guidebook for western Japan, around the ancient capital Kyoto. 
 
 All but two of the top-rated restaurants in Tokyo serve Japanese cuisine and include an outlet that specializes in fugu, the pufferfish that can be lethal if improperly prepared. 
 
 This year, a total of 242 Tokyo restaurants were awarded stars, ranging from fine-dining European and Japanese establishments to eateries serving more humble treats such as broiled eel, soba buckwheat noodles and "kushiage" - deep fried meat and vegetables on skewers. 
 
 In the guide for the western Kansai region, which came out last month, 12 restaurants garnered three-star ratings, down by three from last year. 
 
 Following is a list of the 14 top-rated Tokyo restaurants, and one in the Shonan coastal area, according to the Michelin guide. 
 
 The first Michelin restaurant guide, aimed at drivers in the early days of motoring, was published by the tire company in 1900. The star rating system was introduced in the 1920s. 
 
 1. Azabu Yukimura 
 
 2. Esaki 
 
 3. Ginza Koju 
 
 4. Ishikawa 
 
 5. Kanda 
 
 6. Koan (in Shonan) 
 
 7. Ryugin 
 
 8. 7 chome Kyoboshi 
 
 9. Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten 
 
 10. Sushi Mizutani 
 
 11. Sushi Saito 
 
 12. Sushi Yoshitake 
 
 13. Usukifugu Yamadaya. 
 
 14. Joel Robuchon 
 
 15. Quintessence. 
 
 (The story was refiled to fix typo in the third paragraph) 
 
 (Editing by Miral Fahmy)
– Want a fancypants meal—or 15? Head to Tokyo, which has more three-Michelin-star restaurants than any city in the world ... again. The top honor goes to Tokyo for the sixth year running (it overtook Paris in 2007), reports Reuters, with 15 restaurants claiming the maximum number of stars. Bloomberg notes that's actually down two from 2011. "Japanese gourmet cooking is even more creative, inspired, and inventive than in the past," says the international director of the Michelin guides. To wit, one of the multi-starred restaurants serves the dangerous delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. Click for the full list of Tokyo's three-star eateries.