embla

Last December and into spring there was a bit of buzz about Tsukiji closing at the end of this year to move the market to a newly constructed building. However, I haven't been able to dig up any specific dates or updates on the progress of the new structure.

I wanted to fly my sister up to check it out before it moves, but life is sort of hectic for her right now and if it's still going to be open next year, that would be much easier on her schedule. Does anyone know the status of the move?

I did find this on a tripadvisor thread to give me hope:

with a link to a 2014 calendar:
http://www.shijou.metro.tokyo.jp/calendar/2014.html
but this isn't specifically for Tsukiji (as far as my high school Japanese can tell)

hailstorm

According to the official site (Japanese: http://www.shijou.metro.tokyo.jp/toyosu/faq/05.html) it's not set to open until 2015.

Currently, the area is a mostly barren wasteland, so a 2013 opening is physically impossible.

Taiwaned

Which is great news!

Had no time to pay homage again so having at least another year's reprieve gives me more time to go back.

embla

Hooray! Good news. Thanks for the quick reply.

I would have been amazed if they could do that so quickly! Glad that people can enjoy the original location for a bit longer.

hailstorm

The main holdup has been years spent cleaning up contaminated soil from the Toyosu site.

Needless to say, a lot of people are not happy to be moving the wholesale markets there...

AlwaysAisle

The move of the fish market will not take place for least few years. However, the move of fish market does not mean end of tuna auction and other functions of the fish market.

The current Tsukiji fish market was built as working fish market and handling of visitors was never part of the picture when current fish market was built. Hence, they are putting restrictions and limiting number of visitors to tuna auction. The fish market handle large number of items and safety is number one. Also the fish market handle fresh food where sanitation is important. Cannot simply walk into the tuna auction wearing same shoes wore outside, walk up to frozen tuna and poke them.

However, when they build new fish market it is highly likely that they will consider logistics for visitors. Likely they will consider the fish market as a tourist attraction. There is good chance that at new fish market there will be no limit to number of visitors to tuna auction, or far larger number of people will able to view tuna auction every morning. So, in term of visiting fish market I do not think there is a need to visit before move of Tsukiji fish market. It is not like current fish market will disappear.

hailstorm

On the other hand, Toyosu is rather far from central Tokyo, and not near any major hotels, so you'll likely pay a lot more for a taxi to get there (unless they make the Yurikamome Line run 24/7...which, given that it doesn't require a driver, and would also be convenient for the people working there, is not totally out of the question)

It will certainly be interesting to see if everything can proceed as normal during the Olympics...

AlwaysAisle

So, the taxi fare to the new fish market from tourist hotels in Tokyo is the consideration for people at Honolulu or London to purchase air ticket or cash in Frequent Flyers Miles before the closing of the current Tsukiji market for visit to Tokyo? Those are same people insisting on staying at Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons and will not consider less expensive hotels in Tokyo?

It is working fish market and it is not Disneyland. Visitors not respecting people working at the fish market and poking and touching fish anywhere at the fish market were some of reasons fish market closed for visitors few years ago and had to come up with the plan to handle visitors every morning.

As far as people who work at the fish market every morning are concerned, less visitors the better.

RichardInSF

That is the explanation I would give if I was trying to rationalize the current rules for an attraction that had operated without problems for decades, despite having no restrictions on visitors.

My view is that the real reason is similar to the reason why prepaid SIMs stopped being sold to foreign visitors: both are based on questionable assumptions about the intent of temporary foreign visitors to Japan.

5khours

If the vendors were paying for space rather than using prime urban real estate for free at taxpayers expense, I could understand this argument. As it is they should be bowing the visitors most of whom are taxpayers subsidizing the whole operation.

Same with the fishing ports. IMHO, the whole fishing industry is a bunch of spoiled whiners.

jib71

I believe the market traders complained about numbers of visitors and observed behavior of visitors. Not assumption of intent. So I call a red herring there. (Pun intended).

As 5khours mentions, the city has an obligation to allow public access to the facility - which created a dilemma that they addressed with the current rules. I expect the new market will have more facilities to enable public access without getting in the way of traders, but I also expect that a new wholesale market will be a less "interesting" site for tourists in the same way that the modern wholesale markets in Paris and London are generally ignored. I think I've heard much the same story about the fish market in NYC ... but perhaps I'm confusing it with some other place.

FWIW, there are several other wholesale markets in Tokyo. Mrs. jib was once a regular visitor to the vegetable wholesale markets (she did a roaring trade in mushrooms from China). If you go around the back of Shinagawa station, you'll find the cattle market. But people are less keen to see the trade in cuddly mammals.

WilcoRoger

So what ARE the current rules for visiting Tsukiji? I haven't been there for quite a few years, but would be nice to go again.

BTW - are they open next Monday (public holiday)?

jib71

Guidelines:
http://www.shijou.metro.tokyo.jp/eng...t/tsukiji.html
Calendar:
http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/etc/calendar/2013.html

MattEvan

I think there's a general misconception about the Tsukiji worker's attitude towards visitors. They don't despise them, in general. They despise the rude ones who don't know how to behave in a working market. In fact, by being respectful and using what limited Japanese I have, I've had some very meaningful interactions with them--including being offered rides on their crazy go carts :-)

AlwaysAisle

Tsukiji Market has basically two areas. One is Inside Area (Jyou-nai, 場内) and another is Outside Area (Jyou-gai, 場外). Outside Area has shops open all day long and busy with individual shops where many locals come to Outside Area for shopping. Inside Area is open to public also, but most of activity are at early morning for wholesale. After early morning Inside Area can be quiet with minimal activity, because of that not many locals shop at Inside Area.

The subject of interest here is tuna auction which take place at Inside Area of the market. This Inside Area is the official Tsukiji Market owned by Metropolitan City Government of Tokyo (東京都). Outside Area also referred by people as Tsukiji Market but officially it is not Tsukiji Market and each small shops and restaurants are owned and operated by individual. Tsukiji Market opened on Shouwa 10 (昭和１０年 or 1935), ever since opening of the market on 1935 hardly any Japanese visited tuna auction, due to early morning time, it is working fish market, etc. If you ever visited Japan in early �80s or before then hardly any local Japanese heard of people going to Tsukiji Market early in the morning to watch tuna auction.

Then sometime around �80s small number of foreign visitors started to visit tuna auction at Tsukiji Market. Don�t know how it started, but till then hardly any visitors were at tuna auction. One of reasons for foreign visitors at early morning tuna auction was because many of them were awake due to jetlag. Most visitors at tuna auction were from Europe or the U.S. There is not much jetlag for visitors from Australia or Eastern Asia, so initially back in �80s visitors to tuna auction were Americans and Europeans, no Asians, no Australians.

Then word of mouth went around about visiting tuna auction at Tsukiji Market. Then with Internet helped spread the word and tuna auction at Tsukiji Market became top 10 thing to do on many tourist guide book. Even today majority of visitors at tuna auction are foreign visitors, less than half are Japanese.

Then there were some instances visitors not following rules of the market. Sanitation is one of the top priority at the market. One of reasons Tsukiji Market was built back in 1935 is that before that Tokyo had many small markets working as a wholesale distribution center. However, each market operated on its own and there were number of cases of poor sanitation which resulted in food poisoning. Tsukiji Market was built to consolidate all those small markets spread around Tokyo and bring sanitation of food under control.

There were concerns when visitors started to walk inside of auction area wearing same footwear as outside. Auctioneers wear rubber boots which is worn only inside of auction area and washed before entering auction area each time. There have been cases visitors poking and touching frozen tuna. Tuna at auction is for consumption by human, should not be handled without proper sanitation procedures. There have been a situation some visitors showing up drunk.

Tsukiji Market had to come up with controlled way to handle visitors after such incidents. Then especially on Internet there were talks went around that such was targeted discrimination against foreigners.

I personally care less about the politics of Tsukiji Market owned by City Government of Tokyo. But people who actually work every day at Tsukiji Market are hardworking blue collar people very proud of their jobs. Many of them are delighted that people from outside of Japan came all the way at early morning to see their work. Many of them would like to show their proud work. So when they heard about such action as discrimination against foreigners, many of them were shocked to hear that.

They are blue collar workers who will never experience and will never understand lodging at such places as Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton. For many Tsukiji Market workers, people staying at Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton are people from different society. Many of workers at Tsukiji Market will not have an opportunity to visit places outside of Japan. But many workers at Tsukiji Market are proud of their jobs would love to show visitors their work.