- Title: Relocation of historic Tokyo fish market draws protests, mourning
- Date: 2nd October 2018
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (FILE - 2018) (REUTERS) MONORAIL PASSING BY TOYOSU MARKET TRUCK LOADING AREA EMPTY STALLS VARIOUS OF EMPTY ROOMS AWAITING MOVE
- Embargoed: 16th October 2018 17:30
- Keywords: Tsukiji Toyosu fish market Yuriko Koike fish fishmongers
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- City: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA00290IFUX1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: White-haired and soft-spoken, fishmonger's wife Tai Yamaguchi has been tending her family's fish shop in Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market for more than 50 years, and is fighting to keep her store there.
This week, Yamaguchi, and hundreds of other fishmongers, are reluctantly preparing to abandon the world's largest fish market for Toyosu, a gleaming market on reclaimed land that Tokyo's metropolitan government spent more than $3.5 billion to build. The relocation plan was first conceived 17 years ago but has faced countless delays, most recently in 2016 when toxic substances were found in soil and groundwater at the site, which used to house a gas plant.
"I don't want to move. In fact, I don't think we should move, that is why I am against the move. But the government is strong and doing everything they can to make us move using obfuscation and lies. That said, even if we say don't go, and remain here, that's impossible too. We wouldn't be able to do anything as a minority if we stuck around," the 75-year-old said.
She commutes to the market on her bicycle before sunrise most days, settling into a cramped corner of her family stall to take orders for fresh seafood from sushi chefs and restaurants across the country.
Yamaguchi joined over 300 people in the rain in Tokyo on Saturday (September 29) to protest the move. Singing along to a protest rap, she is the unlikely leader of the "Wives of Tsukiji", a group of fishmongers' wives that formed to demand a stop to the move to Toyosu ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
The move was previously halted due to worry about high levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the soil at its new site. Tokyo has since poured an additional 3.8 billion yen ($33.5 million) on measures like digging hundreds of wells to pump out groundwater at the facility. Even though Tokyo has now declared Toyosu safe, many remain sceptical.
A majority of fish traders surveyed this March and April by a group protesting the relocation of the market pointed to a long list of concerns, from soil contamination to the inaccessibility of the new site. More than a fifth of Tsukiji's fishmongers also said they were not confident about keeping their businesses afloat after the move. Fish traders are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy new equipment and move to Toyosu.
In a last-ditch attempt to stall the relocation, 56 fish traders filed a lawsuit against Tokyo in September, calling for an injunction to halt the move.
On peak days, some 40,000 people flow through Tsukiji. The sprawling, curving complex is a constant hub of activity, with men unloading, sorting, packing and displaying thousands of cartons of white boxes filled with fresh fish trucked in from ports all across Japan. Workers hurl insults and yell at each other as they maneuver their turret trucks, forklifts with a barrel steering wheel, in and out of crowds.
The 95-year old market, often referred to as Japan's kitchen, is expected to close without fanfare on October 4. Business will resume as usual, or so many businesses hope, in the new Toyosu market on Oct 11. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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