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Tsukiji Fish Market

Why go to Tsukiji?

If you need a good reason to get out of bed before the first trains start to roll, or do an all nighter in central Tokyo, then Tsukiji is as good as you’ll get. The market's boisterous labyrinth of stalls showcases all manner of seafood from live sea eel to pickled octopus and in many ways reflects the well-ordered confusion of Japanese society. Tsukiji reveals as much about Japanese culture as it does about Japanese cuisine. After 68 years of history, the Tsukiji market transfer plan is progressing. In 2015, a new 40ha market (1.7 times bigger than now) will be open somewhere else. The atmosphere and chaos that is Tsukiji will be lost. And, as If that wasn’t bad enough, the gross over-exploitation of fish populations in every major fishery will inevitably result in Tsukiji becoming an urban legend, a place where they were rumored to drag in thousands of tones of Big eye and Yellow fin Tuna each morning. The Japanese, who are overwhelmingly responsible for the decline in major fisheries, seem blissfully unaware of the oceans fate, and like Canadian seaman in the last century will unquestionably exclaim utter disbelief when tuna stocks collapse and the ocean if bare.

Where and When to go.
Tsukiji Market is best accessed from Tsukijishijo Station on the Subway Oedo Line or Tsukiji Station on the Subway Hibiya Line. The market opens every morning except Sundays and holidays at 3:00 AM. The action starts in earnest around 5am and mostly over by seven. The smaller stalls are all closed around 11am.

What is Tsukiji?

Tokyo riverside fish stalls, or "Uogashi", date back to the 16th century, the beginning of the Edo period. Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of Edo and modern day Tokyo, sent for fishermen from Tsukudajima, Osaka and granted then certain fishing rights in Tokyo bay in return for supplying seafood to Edo Castle.  While the good stuff went to the shogunate the remainder went to the market near Nihonbashi bridge. To meet the growing demand for fish with the increase in population, Nihonbashi Uogashi was latter redeveloped into a market by the Shogunate who licensed wholesale merchants in a monopoly of buying fish from local ports, selling them to jobbers in the market and thus building up a large fortune. In the Meiji and Taisho eras, the privileges of wholesale merchants were abolished.

After the so-called "Rice Riots" (Kome Soudai) of August 1918 which broke out in over one hundred cities and towns in protest against food shortages and the exploitative practices of wholesalers, the government decided to create new institutions for the distribution of foodstuffs, especially in urban areas and passed a Central Wholesale Market Law in 1923. The Great Kantō earthquake on September 1, 1923, devastated much of central Tokyo, including the Nihonbashi fish market. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the market was relocated to the Tsukiji district, and after the construction of a modern market facility was completed in 1935, the Tsukiji fish market began operations.
The market trades 787,782 tons（2,888 tons daily) of marine products, some 450 kinds of fish are received; sorted and dispatched every day. The shear size of the operation is awesome yet at the same time frightening in its consumer efficiency.

What will strike you is the incredible variety of color, appearance and smell of all the sea creatures that end up at Tsukiji. The Tuna are impressive for their size and beautiful, but lying frozen on the concrete floor much of the splendor and grace has disappeared replaced by a sense of something slightly barbaric in the way these marine creatures are dragged around and the efficiency of the stainless band saw slicing through carcasses. Watch out for those three wheeler mimi-trucks scooting around laden with produce, they stop for no tourist.

Japan without fish is unimaginable, and before your eyes you can see where much of the fish Tokyoites will eat that day comes from. Even though it’s five o’clock in the morning take a moment to ponder a few facts: 71 to 78 per cent of world fish stocks are being fully exploited, overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. Responsible worldwide management of fish stocks is non-existent and in reality what you are lucky enough to be witnessing is the mad scramble for what’s left of the good stuff. After this it’s all jelly fish. Make a mental note that this is a slight you can tell your grandchildren and they will probably think you’re nuts.

The worldwide fleet of commercial fishing vessels has doubled since 1970 and operates at a loss of 54 billion taxpayer dollars every year. The annual global catch peaked in 1989 at 89 million tons and has currently stabilized at about 85 million tons. In simple words the fish are running out fast. The ocean, being a big place, means that at some point Mr. fish can’t find Ms. Fish to start a family and so there are no babies to eat. More than half of the world’s tuna supply, about 2 million tonnes each year, comes from the Pacific region. The data indicates that two key species of tuna, big eye and yellowfin, are in serious trouble if fishing is not controlled immediately. Within three to five years some stocks could be critically overfished: meaning you won’t see them again.

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