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'Save Tsukiji': Protests as Tokyo fish market nears closure

26 Comments
By Kazuhiro Nogi

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26 Comments
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So much for tradition and common sense! This has something more to do with than modern-day hygiene and fire regulations, it stinks of corruption!

6 ( +8 / -2 )

There is a "Special Squad " to deal with the 10s of thousands of rats expected to flee the area as its torn down. And the new market has air curtains to defeat an infestation. But knowing rats like politicians they will find a way. Hell the new market was built on toxic land and a dodgy deal done, but Ishihara can't remember. Too late now tax payers have been paying for the empty freezers for years. Might as well give it a shot I guess. Not a big fan of sea food so I'm fine. Planning not a strong point, But meetings about nothing now that's a topic worth a World Heritage stamp of approval.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

People are not interested in this topic anymore. Many households buy fish at supermarkets today and the fish at the supermarkets are purchased directly from dealers at local fishing ports and recent Japanese do not eat fish very much. Fish market is not the place for sightseeing. About toxic thing, fish at the market is not placed directly on the ground. The water they use is not taken from the ground below. Things change and people will get used to it. They are only nostalgic people.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

Little late I would think. Closing in a week or so, the new one already built, and NOW they decide to protest....right.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@Schopenhauer. The market doesn’t just deal with fish, also many supermarkets, izakaya etc get their products from there. The toxins will find a way just like the rats.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

People are not interested in this topic anymore

Er of course, that would explain why hundreds of people are braving a typhoon to protest it. Because they aren’t interested anymore.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

little late I would think. Closing in a week or so, the new one already built, and NOW they decide to protest....right.

Its not like they only realized just now that the market is moving and decided to protest, they have been proyesting this for years.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Did anybody visit Tsukiji here? It had to move.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

"Asunaro Suetake, one of the protesters, said it was "strange to move the world's biggest fish market to a polluted site, especially when the majority of fishmongers are opposed."

What do the fishmongers know, lol.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They should have rebuilt Tsukiji in stages to allow it to remain operational while being modernized.

The move is a huge loss for everyone.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

A real shame the market is moving and there are obviously concerns about the contamination at the new location.

However, whatever stuff might have been going on behind the scenes, including fat brown envelopes being passed around, there is no question that the market had outgrown its current location.

I was born in Japan and have seen the development of Japan from my childhood days. With the development, some things that truly were memorable were probably needlessly sacrificed, but other things had to be sacrificed as a natural part of the development process.

I say this with a heavy heart, knowing that those in the future will never experience the orderly chaos that was Tsukiji, particularly many years ago before it became a feature of travel guide books around the world.

I believe the outer market will remain, so its not as though Tsukiji will be completely gone. However, it will not be what it was.

Thank you for the memories!!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The title should read Save the Blue Fin Tuna.......

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Akahata Japan Communist Party newspaper warned that Toyosu fish market was built at the reclaimed land of zero meter above the sea. The same thing might happen to Toyosu as Kansai Airport.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

sad about the moving, love tsukiji where it is now.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Save the culture of Tsukiji"

People here do the same thing with local politicians and celebrities even when they've committed crimes. Just misplaced pride. What is it they want to save? the tens of thousands of rats? The hygiene problem they obviously represent?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

said it was "strange to move the world's biggest fish market to a polluted site, especially when the majority of fishmongers are opposed."

Oh, good grief! They call the new site polluted? Tsukiji is only a few hundreds meters away from what used to be the workd’s largest garbage island. Furthermore, Tsukiji is a dirty, delapidated and rat infested ghetto. This is just another bunch of Japanese who are afraid of change.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

ive been severals time to the fish market, and what stuck me was the concrete floor is one big trip hazard, chunks missing , cracks, and completely uneven. But I hope the new site does not loose its hustle and bustle charm, and it does not become to sterile, the old market does have a charm of its own.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The market is close to Ginza. For those that don’t know, it is like Mayfair or oxford street on the monopoly board. Of course Ishihara can’t remember, because he maybe still counting his money and holds loads of get out of jail free cards.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Re: SchopenhauerToday 07:27 am JST

People are not interested in this topic anymore."

Speak for yourself please, and have a smigeon of sympathy for those of us who have long shopped and visited there. There are MANY of us very interested in this terrible event. Including, for instance, everyone who eats food that will be passing through that polluted site. I, for one, also am worried for the psychological health of the workers soon to be confined to cramped indoor spaces instead of in the open spaces they have always enjoyed. Their public can no longer interact with them now that they will be confined to looking at them through glass.

Re: "Fish market is not the place for sightseeing. About toxic thing, fish at the market is not placed directly on the ground. The water they use is not taken from the ground below."

Sightseeing could have been controlled better, it is true.

OK, where is the water coming from? Is it being trucked in by legions of trucks from somewhere, hopefully not Fukushima's coast?

Re: "Did anybody visit Tsukiji here? It had to move."

Yes. Since 1990. Over the last two years, frequently as tour docent for 1-6 people, the proper way to tour, not in huge mobs. The jonai did NOT "have to move". As mentioned above, it could have been rebuilt incrementally in place. It is tragic that this did not happen.

I will be at Toyosu on opening day, Oct. 11th, to check out the new reality. So far, it appears sterile as a hospital lab and not sensitive to the culture it is replacing to an almost insulting degree.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Change can be difficult for some. Of course there are also those who have a financial interest in the fish market staying where it is. Local retailers, restaurants and downstream supporting businesses and the tourist outfits will undoubtedly be harshly affected by the move. But that’s no reason to stop progress.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Wolfpack: Please define "progress". So far, it seems to mean destruction of valued institutions and giving no credence to the hard working men and women who have made this a unique and colorful place.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Lol well that’s a worthless protest if ever I saw one. There’s a new fish market

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So far, it seems to mean destruction of valued institutions and giving no credence to the hard working men and women who have made this a unique and colorful place.

Amen. [ and get over it ]

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Netgrump, I suppose you say the same "and get over it" to people who have lost a loved one? It is a bit uncharitable. Please understand that this destruction of a decades long market that people visited most of their lives is similar to a death in the family. You may not feel that way, but I believe I am not alone.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ms Yarrow

 I suppose you say the same "and get over it" to people who have lost a loved one? It is a bit uncharitable.

Actually I never say something like that to people who lost a loved one. { and I don't make 'promises' too]

Please understand that this destruction of a decades long market that people visited most of their lives is similar to a death in the family. You may not feel that way, but I believe I am not alone.

I do understand that as they said the same about 'Les Halles' despairing from the centre of Paris to Rungis at the outskirts.

The reality is that at the end only those who've experienced the market will miss it.

Les Halles became a shopping centre with a library and conservatorium and the youngest generation know it as a hip-hop centre.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

disappearing **

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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