Operation Tsukiji: Tokyo battles rats as iconic market shuts

Tokyo, Japan - The operation must be ruthless, thorough and silent. Without alerting the watchful enemy, a unit of highly trained Japanese agents will throw up a ring of steel to block any escape from the vast battleground.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the unit’s chief commander is confident of total victory against the enemy army - tens of thousands of rats expected to scurry loose when the world-famous Tsukiji fish market closes next month.

The 23-hectare market near Tokyo’s swanky Ginza district is home to ‘not thousands but tens of thousands’ of rats, according to Tatsuo Yabe, a rat expert. After a fabled 83 year history, the world’s biggest fish market will move to a brandnew facility in Toyosu, about 2.3km away on the waterfront.

“They will likely start moving en masse once they notice something unusual... The week after the market closes on October 10 will be the major battle,” a Tokyo government official who commands the Tsukiji anti-rat operation said.