Iconic Tokyo fish market changes base

Hundreds of fishmongers on forklifts and trucks rose before dawn yesterday in Tokyo to join a mammoth exodus of vendors as the world-famous Tsukiji market relocates to a new site.

In small vehicles and the market’s famed “turret trucks” — one-man flatbeds with a barrel-shaped steering column at the front — they drove out of the Tsukiji site one last time, headed for Toyosu, the market’s new home.

The main bridge out from the market was closed to traffic for the move, with security guards in place to wave along the leaving wholesalers who drove in orderly lines between safety cones topped with flashing red and green lights.

Hundreds of the 900 businesses that once handled 480 kinds of seafood worth US$14 million daily — as well as 270 types of fruits and vegetables — are relocating.

A total of 2,600 turret trucks and forklifts will drive about 2.3 kilometers from Tsukiji to the new site over five days.

The move began a day after the last tuna auction at the market, a pre-dawn ritual for Tokyo’s food world that also once drew crowds of tourists hoping for one of just 120 spots to watch.

The 83-year-old market’s move has been in the works for decades, prompted by its rundown state, but it has been a lengthy and controversial process, hindered by pollution rows and construction delays.

The discovery of soil contamination at Toyosu, formerly home to a gas plant, sparked safety fears and forced local authorities to spend millions of dollars to clean up the area.

After experts declared Toyosu safe, the Tokyo governor took the final decision to move the market there in late 2017.

But while the new site promises state-of-the-art refrigeration and will keep gawping tourists away from the business of the market in a gallery behind glass, the move has still left a bitter taste for some.

“I feel nostalgic as Tsukiji has been my home ground for 15 years. We are sad to lose the Tsukiji brand,” vegetable wholesaler Tsukasa Kujirai said on Saturday.