TOKYO, Japan鈥擨t鈥檚 among the biggest of Japan鈥檚 many New Year holiday rituals: Early on Tuesday, a huge, glistening tuna was auctioned for about 14 million Japanese yen ($118,000) at Tokyo鈥檚 80-year-old Tsukiji market. Next year, if all goes as planned, the tradition won鈥檛 be quite the same.
The world鈥檚 biggest and most famous fish and seafood market is 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 post-war 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鈥檚 penchant for fresh starts at the beginning of the year鈥攖he first visit of the year to a shrine and the first dream of the year are other important firsts鈥攁nd it鈥檚 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 200-kilogram (440-pound) tuna.
In 2013, a bidding war drove his record winning bid to 154.4 million yen (at today鈥檚 exchange rates about $1.3 million) for a 222-kilogram (490-pound) fish.
That drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, and the winning price in 2014 was dramatically lower. Last year, a 180.4-kilogram (380-pound) tuna caught off Japan鈥檚 northern region of Aomori fetched a winning bid of 4.51 million yen ($37,480).
Japanese eat about 80 percent of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, and stocks of all three bluefin species鈥攖he Pacific, Southern and Atlantic鈥攈ave fallen over the past 15 years amid overfishing.
But while the new year and daily tuna auctions are Tsukiji鈥檚 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.
Already, some shops outside the market have been razed and a new building that will house a smaller 鈥渙uter market鈥� is under construction. Conceptual drawings from the Tokyo city government show the 23-hectare (nearly 57-acre) market site that fronts the Sumida River鈥檚 outlet into Tokyo Bay being transformed into an open waterfront park surrounded by greenery, with a wide shopping plaza and a passenger terminal for tourist ferries traversing the bay and river.
鈥淲e are contributing with all our efforts to the revitalization of our historic Tsukiji,鈥� said a banner emblazoned with the logos of the architect and other contractors hanging from scaffolding of the new building.
Tsukiji鈥檚 predawn auctions are a fixture on the tourist circuit, and since it was not set up to accommodate large crowds the management has gradually limited access for safety鈥檚 sake.
Planning for the move began nearly 20 years ago. But the shift was delayed for years due to toxins found in the soil at the new location, the former site of a coal gasification plant run by Tokyo Gas.
The city announced in 2001 that the market would be moved by 2012. But cleanup work dragged on, and in 2013, Tokyo Gas disclosed it had found more toxins at the site.
Critics of the move said city authorities were swapping worries over cramped and some say unhygienic conditions in Tsukiji for a new set of health problems: unsafe levels of lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and other toxins.
Cleanup of the tainted site required the removal and replacement of 2 meters (6 feet) of topsoil, construction of retaining walls, pumping out of polluted ground water and an injection of fresh water.
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