But two years after a free trade agreement between Australia and Japan made Australian produce cheaper for Japanese consumers, sales of meat are booming on their reputation for high quality.

Last year, NSW exported $318 million worth of beef to Japan, up 20 per cent since the free trade deal was struck in 2015, while other NSW meat exports have grown 16 per cent.

"Ten years ago, Australian food and wine was seen as cheap, that was the image," said Mr Crabbe, owner of the fashionable Ruby Jack's steakhouse and the Two Rooms grill in Tokyo. "Now, our house wine at the restaurant is an Australian chardonnay. NSW beef is our number one seller in both restaurants."

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was making her first overseas trade mission to Japan to encourage Japanese companies to buy NSW produce, and invest.

"It's not a hard sell," she said, referring to the quality of NSW agricultural produce, after lunching at Ruby Jack's. The menu included oysters from Pambula in NSW, Rangers Valley black angus beef and Burrundulla wines from Mudgee. Japan is NSW's largest export market.

Mr Crabbe, 47, had lived in Japan for 20 years. He had worked under Sydney's Japanese master chef Tetsuya in his original restaurant in Rozelle.

After travelling the world, Mr Crabbe moved to Japan to become head chef at Tokyo's Park Hyatt, the setting for Sophia Coppola's 2003 movie about international travellers and their hotel-bound lives, Lost in Translation.

Mr Crabbe lived the film, cooking each day for Coppola and stars Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray at The New York Grill.

In 2009, an angel investor encouraged Mr Crabbe, by then executive chef at the Grand Hyatt Kyoto, to start his own restaurant with two business partners. Two Rooms has been ranked as one of the best rooftop bars in the world by CNN.

In Japan, non-Japanese beef cannot be referred to as wagyu, so the NSW beef is highlighted on his menus as black angus. Mr Crabbe dry ages the meat.

Japan fiercely protects its farmers but, under the free trade agreement with Australia, the tariff on frozen beef fell from 38.5 per cent to 30.5 per cent, and will continue to fall to 19.5 per cent over 18 years. The fresh beef tariff fell to 32. 5 per cent.

Mr Crabbe said he didn't think the tariff cut had made a big difference, as Japanese consumers sought quality over price, but it had made it easier to source Australian product. It also improved the margins for restaurants choosing to serve Australian beef.

Countries without free trade agreements with Japan, such as the US, faced periodic sharp hikes of up to 50 per cent on produce such as beef if they imported too much in a year. Japan's Ministry of Agriculture is set to impose a 50 per cent "snapback" on US beef shortly, and this is is expected to benefit Australian producers.

Much of Ms Berejiklian's time on her Tokyo trip will be spent talking to Japanese investors about the NSW government's pipeline of infrastructure projects. "We need their support because there is so much to be done," she said.

Japan is Australia's second biggest source of foreign direct investment.