By Yoshi | Japan Unveiled
At four-thirty in the morning on a January day in 2019, I stood in a specific cold building in a specific part of the Tokyo waterfront and watched two tuna sell for a combined total of 333.6 million yen.
The first — a 278-kilogram Pacific bluefin tuna from Ōma in Aomori Prefecture, the specific fishing port whose specific cold waters and specific fishing tradition produce what many tuna enthusiasts consider the finest bluefin in Japan — sold for 333.6 million yen to a consortium of sushi restaurant operators. The second sold for a more modest but still extraordinary sum. Both were destined for specific high-end sushi restaurants in Tokyo and international markets, where the specific quality of the specific fish from the specific auction would be communicated to specific customers who would pay specific prices to experience it.
This was the Toyosu Market’s first New Year’s auction — the specific annual event in which the first tuna of the year sells for a price that bears no rational relationship to the nutritional value of tuna and every relationship to the specific Japanese understanding that the first of anything in the new year has a specific significance that transcends its ordinary value.
The Toyosu Market, which opened in October 2018 as the successor to the legendary Tsukiji Market, is the largest wholesale seafood market in the world and one of the most specific and most fascinating food institutions in Japan. Understanding it — and the other major Japanese food markets — is understanding something specific about how Japanese food culture maintains the specific supply chain relationships that produce the specific quality of Japanese food at the retail and restaurant level.
Toyosu: The World’s Largest Seafood Market
Toyosu Shijō (豊洲市場 — Toyosu Market) — located on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, approximately five kilometres from the Tsukiji site that it replaced — handles approximately 480 tonnes of seafood daily through its wholesale operations. The specific scale: approximately 400 different species of fish and seafood pass through the market annually, supplied by fishing boats from throughout Japan, from aquaculture operations across the country, and from international suppliers whose specific products meet the specific quality standards the market’s buyers maintain.
The specific institutional structure: Toyosu operates as a wholesale market in which specific licensed intermediary merchants (nakaoroshi gyōsha — 仲卸業者) purchase fish from the primary auctioneers and sell to the specific retail buyers — the restaurant operators, the supermarket buyers, the fresh fish shops — who constitute the downstream supply chain. This two-tier structure is the specific institutional form through which the specific quality sorting and quality communication of the Japanese fresh fish market operates.
The specific tuna auction: the most celebrated and most internationally known element of Toyosu’s operation, in which the most prized large bluefin tuna are auctioned before dawn to licensed buyers whose specific bidding process — conducted in the specific cold of the auction hall, with the specific abbreviated hand signals that the experienced buyer uses rather than verbal bids — produces results that are regularly reported in Japanese media as indicators of the year’s anticipated quality and availability.
The visitor experience at Toyosu: the Toyosu Market operates a specific visitor facility — a raised walkway from which the auction floor and the main market floor can be viewed through glass — that replaced the more direct visitor access that Tsukiji allowed. The specific managed-visitor experience reflects both the specific hygiene management requirements of a large-scale food handling facility and the specific commercial reality that Tsukiji’s open visitor access created specific congestion and specific hygiene risks that required specific management.
Tsukiji Outer Market: The Legacy Lives
While the wholesale operations of Tsukiji Market moved to Toyosu in 2018, the specific area surrounding the old Tsukiji site — the jogai shijō (場外市場 — outer market) — continues to operate and continues to attract the specific combination of food industry professionals, serious food tourists, and international visitors that Tsukiji’s global reputation established.
The specific Tsukiji outer market: approximately one hundred and seventy shops, stalls, and restaurants concentrated in the specific few blocks surrounding the former inner market site, selling everything from fresh fish and seafood to specific professional kitchen tools, dried goods, pickles, tamagoyaki (the specific fresh-from-the-griddle rolled omelette that has become the most specifically Tsukiji of all casual eating experiences), and various other food products.
The specific experience of eating at Tsukiji outer market: the combination of the specific early morning energy (the outer market operates from approximately five AM, with the busiest period from six to nine AM), the specific density of specific food experience (the best sushi breakfast available at specific price points, the specific fresh oysters, the specific tuna-cutting demonstrations), and the specific connection to the wholesale seafood industry makes the Tsukiji outer market experience one of the most specifically food-focused of all Tokyo tourism options.
Nishiki Market: Kyoto’s Kitchen
Nishiki Ichiba (錦市場 — Nishiki Market) — the specific narrow covered shopping street in central Kyoto that has been a fresh food market since approximately the fourteenth century — is one of the most historically significant food retail environments in Japan and one of the most specifically expressive of the specific Kyoto culinary tradition.
The specific character of Nishiki Market: a covered arcade approximately four hundred metres long and three to four metres wide, lined on both sides with approximately one hundred and thirty shops selling specific Kyoto food products — fresh tofu and yuba (tofu skin), specific Kyoto-style tsukemono (the pickled vegetables that Kyoto’s pickled goods culture is famous for), specific dried goods, fresh fish, specific Kyoto vegetables (Kyō-yasai — the specific heritage vegetable varieties that the Kyoto agricultural tradition has preserved), and prepared foods for immediate consumption.
The specific Kyō-yasai dimension of Nishiki Market is worth specific attention: Kyoto Prefecture maintains a specific registry of heritage vegetable varieties — Kintoki ninjin (the specific deep red carrot of Kyoto), Shōgoin kabu (the specific round white turnip), Katsura uri (the specific pale green melon for pickling), and various other varieties — whose production has been maintained in specific cultivation areas near Kyoto for centuries. These vegetables are grown in smaller quantities than standard commercial varieties and are available primarily through specific specialist shops and the Nishiki Market.
Ōsaka’s Food Markets: Kuromon and Black Gate
Kuromon Ichiba (黒門市場 — Black Gate Market) in Osaka’s Nipponbashi neighbourhood is the specific Osaka food market most directly comparable to Tsukiji outer market in its combination of wholesale food trade and retail consumer culture.
The specific Kuromon experience: approximately one hundred and fifty shops selling fresh fish, fresh meat, fresh vegetables, prepared foods, and various other food products in the specific Osaka style — which means, as a general rule, generously portioned, affordable, immediately available for consumption, and presented with the specific Osaka merchant culture’s directness. The Kuromon Market tuna counter that cuts fresh tuna to order and sells it by the piece at prices that compare favourably to restaurant prices; the specific fresh oyster stand that serves cold Hiroshima oysters at three oysters for eight hundred yen — these specific experiences are available only in Kuromon Market’s specific combination of wholesale supply and retail access.
Regional Markets: The Smaller Scale
Beyond the major urban markets, Japan maintains a network of regional wholesale and retail markets that are the specific daily supply chain for the specific regional food cultures I describe across this blog.
The chihō ichiba (地方市場 — regional market) of the major fishing ports — the specific morning markets of Hakodate in Hokkaido, the specific crab markets of Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture, the specific morning markets of Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture — are each specific expressions of the specific relationship between the specific fish available at the specific port and the specific food culture that has developed around that availability.
The asa-ichi (朝市 — morning market) tradition: the specific early morning markets that operate in various forms across Japan — from the specific vegetable and flower markets of major agricultural areas to the specific seafood morning markets of coastal towns — maintain the specific daily fresh supply relationship between producers and consumers that the supermarket system has partly but not entirely replaced. The person who buys fresh vegetables from the specific farmer who grew them at the specific morning market near their home is participating in a supply chain of remarkable directness — a direct human connection between the specific agricultural work and the specific daily meal.
— Yoshi 🐟 Central Japan, 2026
Enjoyed this? You might also like: “Sushi vs. Sashimi: The Difference, the Etiquette, and the Truth About What You’re Eating” and “Japanese Seafood Beyond Sushi: What the Ocean Offers When You’re Not at a Sushi Counter” — both available on Japan Unveiled.
