Tuna nets high price at final auction
It’s among the biggest of Japan’s many New Year holiday rituals: Early on Tuesday, a huge, glistening tuna was auctioned for about 14 million Japanese yen ($118,000) at Tokyo’s 80-year-old Tsukiji market. Next year, if all goes as planned, the tradition won’t be quite the same.
The world’s biggest and most famous fish and seafood market was due to move in November to a massive complex further south in Tokyo Bay, making way for redevelopment of the prime slice of downtown real estate.
The closure of the Tsukiji market will punctuate the end of the postwar era for many of the mom-and-pop shops just outside the main market that peddle a cornucopia of sea-related products, from dried squid and seaweed to whale bacon and caviar.
The auction is typical of Japan’s penchant for fresh starts at the beginning of the year—the first visit of the year to a shrine and the first dream of the year are other important firsts — and it’s meant to set an auspicious precedent for the 12 months to come.
Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura has prevailed in most of the recent new year auctions, and he did so again this year in the bidding for a 200kilogram tuna.
In 2013, a bidding war drove his record winning bid to 154.4 million yen for a 222-kg fish.
Japanese eat about 80 percent of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, and stocks of all three bluefin species — the Pacific, Southern and Atlantic — have fallen over the past 15 years amid overfishing.
But while the new year and daily tuna auctions are Tsukiji’s best-known events, the market is about much more than just tuna.
On a recent year-end day, shop owners in rubber boots and aprons were rushing to clean up and sell off the last of their inventory, as the last few hundred shoppers milled around hunting for bargains.
Some shops outside the market have been razed and a new building that will house a smaller “outer market” is under construction. Conceptual drawings from the Tokyo city government show the 23-hectare market site that fronts the Sumida River’s outlet into Tokyo Bay being transformed into an open waterfront park surrounded by greenery.
“We are contributing with all our efforts to the revitalizationof our historic Tsukiji ,” said a banner emblazoned with the logos of the architect and other contractors hanging from scaffolding of the new building.