What strange assumptions (x2) to make!!!

I'm with you on the fact that quality is often lacking (chain sushi is nothing like sushi just like McDonalds is nothing like a burger and Pret nothing like sandwiches, etc) but those things pop up at every street corner in every large city from London to Tel Aviv and Paris to New York so there is no doubt that people love it. Ceviche and Peruvian and Nikkei places are also plentiful.

As for good sushi and sashimi places they do exist, but they are predictably rare, but they exist both in metropoles and in some large and relatively cosmopolitan cities (there is one in Nice that several Japanese stars and ministers have patronised for years, and which is in a place tourists typically would not go to when visiting unless they are coming specifically for that restaurant, and a couple of other real places in town). I assume that the same must be true of Manchester or Edinburgh, but truth be told, as someone who has been to Japan many times and has had family living there for a few years, there are very few people I would trust to recommend a good sushi or sashimi place as most people outside of Japan have simply no idea what that even means, including some people I truly respect as foodies.

But again, that's sort of besides the point - expertise is one thing and taste is another, and the taste certainly is there.