Environmentalists slapped ban on the open auction of tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market due to some bad behaviour. But now it is reopen to visitors as the demand and pressure to resume the auction increases each day. It is said that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs the gigantic wholesale market in Chuo Ward, temporarily banned onlookers, 90 percent of whom are foreign tourists, from the tuna trading floor Dec. 15, citing visitors’ bad behavior among other reasons.
After a month the ban ended on Saturday, and the first auctions took place Monday. Yoshiaki Takagi, deputy head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, said that they have decided to reopen because we had said we would only close for a month. He told that even after the ban was imposed, a few dozen people a day continued to show up in hopes of catching a glimpse of the bidding.
Danish visitor Rikke Grundtvig, told that they were so lucky that we were able to see the auctions today. She also said that visitors from different nationalities wanted to see the fish this morning. Security guards were deployed on the auction floor and handbills in five languages outlining acceptable behavior were distributed to observers. According to Takagi the auction closed mainly because around the New Year’s period the auctions get very busy. More trucks pass through the market and it gets dangerous.
