Trouble at Tsukiji: world’s biggest fish market caught in limbo as move stalls

From extravagantly priced tuna belly sushi to a simple dish of tempura squid tentacles, if you eat seafood in Tokyo it will almost certainly have come from Tsukiji market, a sprawling collection of warehouses, restaurants and shops that has been part of the Japanese capital’s economic and cultural fabric for more than 80 years.

The Tokyo central wholesale market, to give it its official name, is where Japan ’s obsession with seafood transforms into a commercial operation worth almost two billion yen (HK$143 million)a day.

By the time the dawn auctions have ended, 3,000 mostly frozen tuna – their lifeless forms resembling second world war bombs – will have passed through Tsukiji before being sent across Japan. But the fate of the world’s biggest fish market is in the balance after a planned move to new premises was halted due to contamination concerns.

Despite the uncertainty, daily life at the market must continue. Tsukiji’s intermediate wholesalers work quickly to identify the best tuna before they go up for auction. Wielding torches to check the fattiness of tail cross-sections in the dim light, they scribble down their lot number, where and how they were caught, and the name of the fishing vessel that landed them.

Tsukiji is a draw not just for tuna lovers. The sprawling market, covering 2.4 million sq ft, handles more than 400 varieties of seafood a day with a combined weight of 1,800 tonnes, generating daily sales worth about 1.8 billion yen. It also sells about 270 varieties of fruit imported from around the world.

Almost 20,000 vehicles pass through the market’s gates each day, part of a supply line that connects an estimated 60,000 people whose livelihoods depend on the seamless flow of fish and vegetables from auction room to restaurant kitchen and supermarket shelf.