Toyosu Wholesalers Want to Sell Fish to Consumers

December 16, 2018

Tokyo--With the new Toyosu wholesale food market in Tokyo in a busy year-end trading period, intermediary wholesalers are calling for the general public to be allowed to enter the market to buy fish.

Unlike in the former Tsukiji market, only fish retailers and other professionals have access to intermediary wholesalers at Toyosu.

Although the Tsukiji market was also intended only for wholesale trading, the market's open structure made it easier for consumers to sneak through the watch of security guards into the market, according to people who worked at Tsukiji.

By contrast, the sophisticated multistory market buildings at Toyosu are closed to consumers, with the entrances of the stairways and escalators leading to the wholesale marketplaces are staffed with security guards.

Around the year-end at Tsukiji, many intermediary wholesalers offered small packages of tuna sashimi for families, as well as crabs, which they usually did not dealt in, for year-end and New Year dishes. Many consumers made bulk purchases, market people recalled.

For intermediary wholesalers, many of which are financially struggling, sales to consumers were an important source of income. "We want them (consumers) to be allowed to buy at Toyosu as well," one market worker said.

But an official of the Tokyo metropolitan government, the operator of the market, said, "The Toyosu market is a place for trading by professionals in the first place, although it is also a tourist spot."

At Toyosu, a visitor was hit by a "turret truck" electric cart and injured. Also, buyers from fish stores oppose allowing consumers in, saying they stand in the way of their jobs.

"We can't do things just like in Tsukiji," the metropolitan official said. Jiji Press