Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government has banned tourists from the city’s fish market for a month after complaints from traders their presence was hampering business.
According to a BBC report, the morning tuna auction as turned the Tsukiji fish market into one of the Japan’s most popular tourist attractions, with as many as 500 people gathering for each sale. The report stated drunken tourists often visit the early- Morning auction straight after leaving the city’s nightclubs. Tensions between tourists and fish workers have also accumulated with a growing number of complaints about visitors getting in the way of workers, taking photographs and touching fish products.
Guards will be deployed at the entrance of the tuna auction inside the market in order to enforce the ban, while hotels, embassies and travel agencies will also be informed in a bid to deter visitors from trying to gain entry.
"We have decided on a total ban as visitors are taking pictures with flash and touching tuna, which gets in the way of bidding," said Akiko Ueyama, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
"The market is not a visitor attraction but a place for fish bidding. We are also considering if we should continue it indefinitely." With its rows of unidentifiable maritime creatures, hundreds of bustling fish industry workers and jet-lag friendly pre-dawn start, the fish market has become one of the city's biggest unofficial attractions.
Along with Asakusa, home to Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple, and the neon lights of the electric stores of Akihabara, the fish market is one of the three most popular tourist spots in the city, according to officials. Fuelled by an international sushi boom and gaining popularity by word of mouth among travellers, the daily tuna auction is a highlight of a visit to the working fish market, along with eating a fresh sushi breakfast in one of a string of small, informal restaurants on the fringes of the market.
According to a BBC report, the morning tuna auction as turned the Tsukiji fish market into one of the Japan’s most popular tourist attractions, with as many as 500 people gathering for each sale. The report stated drunken tourists often visit the early- Morning auction straight after leaving the city’s nightclubs. Tensions between tourists and fish workers have also accumulated with a growing number of complaints about visitors getting in the way of workers, taking photographs and touching fish products.
Guards will be deployed at the entrance of the tuna auction inside the market in order to enforce the ban, while hotels, embassies and travel agencies will also be informed in a bid to deter visitors from trying to gain entry.
"We have decided on a total ban as visitors are taking pictures with flash and touching tuna, which gets in the way of bidding," said Akiko Ueyama, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
"The market is not a visitor attraction but a place for fish bidding. We are also considering if we should continue it indefinitely." With its rows of unidentifiable maritime creatures, hundreds of bustling fish industry workers and jet-lag friendly pre-dawn start, the fish market has become one of the city's biggest unofficial attractions.
Along with Asakusa, home to Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple, and the neon lights of the electric stores of Akihabara, the fish market is one of the three most popular tourist spots in the city, according to officials. Fuelled by an international sushi boom and gaining popularity by word of mouth among travellers, the daily tuna auction is a highlight of a visit to the working fish market, along with eating a fresh sushi breakfast in one of a string of small, informal restaurants on the fringes of the market.
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