Tokyo tuna market bans tourists after trader complaints

Each morning there is a tuna market, known as the Tsukiji fish market, in Tokyo. It’s the biggest fish market in the world, handling 2000 tons of seafood every day. This means that every morning hundreds of tuna are laid out to be auctioned. The demand for it is very high and the stock is getting smaller, which makes the price insane. Some tuna’s are being sold for more than 100 000 dollar.

The growing reputation of sushi brings a lot of tourists to the market. The Japanese government, and especially the traders aren’t really upset with the foreign visitors. The tourists come straight to the market, after a night out. U can imagine that they bring more troubles than profit.

Also the camera flashes of the tourists are an obstacle, they obscure the hand signals used to make bids. For those reasons, the Japanese government decided to ban all tourists for a month. This decision was made after drunken visitors embraced and kissed a fish.

In my opinion the Japanese government took a wrong decision. I do agree with the part that foreign visitors only bring troubles to the fish market as aforementioned. But they could take more flexible measures than a total ban. They could ban camera’s on the fish market, to avoid that the tourists obscure the hand signals. They could also do an alcohol test on the visitors, to make sure that there’s no drunken people around.

Niels Steyaert

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8608613.stm