New Tokyo fish market to open on Oct 11, 2018

Koike put the relocation plan on hold shortly after being elected Tokyo's first female governor last year.

She put it on hold because it was the right thing to do at the time! What difference does it make if she was the first or tenth female governor!

In January, Kiyoshi Kimura, Japan's self-styled "Tuna King," paid more than $600,000 for a 212-kilogram bluefin tuna at the first auction of the new year.

So?

how sad, i miss the current location already, so convenient in walking distance from Nihonbashi,

marunouchi, and ginza. wonder what will happen to the small shops all around there. that was one of

the top tourist site in tokyo.

So has all the dangerous chemicals just magically disappeared? When this was first announced it sounded like it would be impossible to clean the site up without tearing it down and starting over. And know, suddenly, they will be relocating without what at least seems to be any major fixes! TIJ

Hands up who thinks nothing has been done since the move was delayed and nothing will be ongoing till the move?

Will miss the site and it's surrounding area which really got a boost from the Tsukiji subway station, longer hike previously.

so convenient in walking distance from Nihonbashi...

That's why Koike proposed something unexpected: Utilize Toyosu (as new fish market) but also protect Tsukiji brand. Many criticize her for chasing two goals. But I hope she succeeds. She set up a special study group to come up with a new idea on how to keep Tsukiji brand.

Ending years of delays marked by political grandstanding.

They don't mention the costs paid by the City of Tokyo (ultimately the taxpayers) to maintain the unused property and local infrastructure (roads, stations, bridges).

Koike could have continued with the inquiries and fixes without endangering anyone, but she chose to make a political point by refusing to allow the new facilities to open.

The new fish market should not affect Tsukiji's shops. It may add 15 minutes to the delivery time, but nothing else will change. You will still be able to get overpriced sushi there. (yes, proximity to the fish market should have driven costs and prices down....) Hopefully, Tsukiji will get cleaned up, modernized and maybe expanded with the move leaving additional space.

I am not interested in this topic. Though I am a Japanese, I do not eat fish often. It is difficult to cook and it does not make my stomach full. I do not eat sashimi either. Have you ever seen how they make sashimi? They do not wash sliced fish meat which are with fish blood and serve them to customers. They think if they wash fish meat, it loses taste.

She then found a series of problems with the new site in Toyosu, including soil and groundwater contamination as well as the discovery that contractors had inexplicably failed to fill in a basement at the new site with clean soil as a buffer against underground pollution.

No one held responsible for this? How is the progress on the investigation on Ishihara?

The local government has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the new facility.

I wonder if it really went into clean up and not just in brown envelopes.

We believe the schedule will give us enough time to prepare for a smooth relocation

She believes... The people building it already said Aug was the deadline to decide.

To everyone saying they're sad seeing that tourist location go, it was never a tourist location to begin with. Check YouTube in order to see how idiotic tourists behaved in Tsukiji, with was is, essentially, everyone's food (hint: drunk Brits, licking the fish and attacking the shop owners? WTF?) I'm glad the access will be even further restricted and controlled, and I'm glad they moved it from that old location to a modern facility.

ebisen.

Agreed, seen it often on tv-reports where tourists behave as if they were at an amusement park.

I wonder if it really went into clean up and not just in brown envelopes.

What is this obsession with baseless brown envelope accusations. Do you think so little of Japan or do you just blindly listen to the utter nonsense spewed by the other "experts-in-every-field" here on JT?

What a wasted opportunity. In the 1980s there was a plan to rebuild the wholesale structure in place. Then the governor changed and eventually we end up with Ishihara's money grabbing squad browbeating Toyo Gas into eventually selling the land in Toyosu. Who knows what threats were made in the secret meeting that happened.

It is a travesty that the nearly 80 years of social and business connections will be severed. Have you seen the new building? Right now, everyone works with no walls and it is easy to see and talk with friends and customers. The new place looks like a soul-less jail.

Rumor is for the return of the wholesalers to the newly rebuilt structure in five years, right back where it is now. I wonder if that is true.

Not just "15-minutes away", but for visitors, another train and a long walk, and into the Toyosu facilities which will keep visitors tightly contained and far away. Hardly convenient or even interesting.

Goodbye to the chance and wonderful exchanges that were possible when I walked the wholesale rows and corridors. I am sorry that overwhelming tourism broke this alliance. If only there had been a system to control the sheer number of tourists, well-behaving in the main, just too many. Will the retail area thrive or decline? New buildings are not the same but may be a draw. Is the sushi overpriced? I think not.

End of an era that could have been avoided. Disappointed that Koike could not do better than Ishihara when it comes to preserving and renovating one of the truly unique features of Tokyo.