Tokyo’s famous market closed in 2018. Except it’s still going strong

Tsukiji was doomed, surely. Its raison d’etre, its entire reason for being, had disappeared.

The Tsukiji fish market, the world’s largest wholesale fish and seafood space – and surely the world’s most famous – closed its doors and pulled down its awnings for the final time on October 11, 2018. Its many vendors and workers shifted their operations to Toyosu, a gleaming, modern facility in southern Tokyo.

The Tsukiji outer market in Tokyo is thriving despite the departure of the fish market.Credit: Alamy

Gone was the bustle in Tsukiji, gone was the produce, gone was the icon. It stood to reason that the Tsukiji outer market, the rickety network of shops and stalls that existed as an annex of the main complex, a place for workers to eat and visitors to pick up kitchen supplies, would surely cease to exist as well.

Indeed, many vendors left, making their way to Toyosu with the main market. The outer market’s demise seemed inevitable.

And yet here we are today, shoulder to shoulder on a packed street in Tsukiji, queuing for grilled wagyu, pushing through crowds to get to knife makers, marvelling at the place’s success.

A yakitori stall at the outer market.Credit: Alamy

“There was a massive clamour for the lottery to get a space in the new market,” says Tyler Palma, the global head of operations for tour company InsideJapan, and a Tokyo resident. “Whether you’re a restaurant, a knife shop, there were limited spaces at Toyosu, and they all got put in a lottery.

“The ones who got the spaces in the new market almost thought they’d won the lottery in the literal sense, whereas people who were stuck in the old market thought they were doomed to fail, they would lose all their business. But that hasn’t been the case. In retrospect, it’s been amazing to see how much tourism has remained at Tsukiji, how many people still go there.”

The workers, of course, have disappeared. The locals, by and large, have found little reason to return.

Tourists, meanwhile, who would once visit Tsukiji to see the famed tuna auctions, and to walk the market floor and gaze at the phenomenal range of seafood changing hands each day, have swelled in number since the wholesalers departed. They’re still drawn by the historic nature of Tsukiji, but also by the many shops and stalls selling everything from traditional products and produce to more modern offerings of street food and souvenirs.

Lively streets surround the old market.Credit: Alamy

“One of the things that was always there was the tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) makers – each one had their own recipe, and it was where you could go to get some of the best tamagoyaki in the city,” says Palma. “A lot of the sushi restaurants would purchase from those stalls. And they’re still there, and they’re doing great.

“You have several of the knife shops. And then some of the pottery shops still exist, great places to pick up Japanese products on the cheap. Plus, the key ingredient for all Japanese food is dashi [a sauce], and one of the key ingredients for dashi is bonito flakes (katsuobushi) – at Tsukiji there’s still some shops making and selling that.”

Stroll the packed outer market streets today and you will spy some of those legendary old stores. Sugimoto is a knife shop with a history that stretches back to samurai swords. Aritsugu is the same.

Matsumura Katsuobushi dates back to the Meiji era. Sushi Dai still regularly has queues more than two hours long, just as it did before 2018.

Of the market’s newer residents, Nenohi is a modern, high-end knife maker; JyuJyu does luxurious wagyu skewers; and Kitsuneya serves popular beef and rice bowls.

Tsukiji’s charm is still obvious. It still has the feel of a living, Edo-era marketplace, even if the bulk of the customers these days are tourists. This, however, is one of those stories of tourism helping to preserve something rather than destroy it, helping Tokyo retain a slice of its history that would be otherwise lost.

And there may be even bigger crowds arriving. It was announced recently that the site of the old Tsukiji wholesale market will be redeveloped into a vast economic hub, one featuring hotels, apartments, a convention centre and a new stadium for the Yomiuri Giants baseball team.

The outer market will change again, no doubt. It will morph, it will adapt. But it seems it will never die.

The Tsukiji Outer Market is located in southern Tokyo, and is easily accessible from the Tsukiji metro station. Opening hours for the shops and stalls vary, though the market as a whole is open daily. See tsukiji.or.jp

The writer travelled at his own expense.