TOKYO - CENTRAL Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market will tighten restrictions on tourists visiting its colourful tuna auctions after foreign visitors were caught touching fish and blinding auctioneers with camera flashlights.
'With all of them using camera flashes to take photos during the auctions, this is causing serious trouble,' said Mr Ihei Sugita, who is in charge of visitor coordination at the Tsukiji market, one of the biggest fish markets in the world.
'At a place that auctions several hundred tunas in a day, this is affecting our business,' he added.
Crowded and noisy, with buggies and forklifts hurtling across slippery floors past huge slabs of tuna and exotic sea creatures, Tsukiji has long been a tourist magnet - to the dismay of some traders, who find that the visitors disrupt their work.
Mr Sugita said there are at least 20 to 30 visitors a day watching the auctions, many from the United States, China and Australia, and they touch the fish and take photos when they find tuna imported from their home countries.
From today, tourists will be able to watch frozen tuna auctions only from a designated area, and only between 5am and 6.15am, he said.
The new time limit is also meant to prevent visitors from lingering around after the auction and blocking the delivery of the purchased tuna to stores, Mr Sugita added.
'We do feel bad to completely turn them down since they are visiting all the way from abroad, so that's why we are keeping this window of time that will affect us the least,' he said.
The market, where 2 billion yen (S$28 million) worth of fish and vegetables are traded every day, has been a top tourist destination for foreigners.
Up to 50,000 foreign visitors come to the market every year, Mr Sugita said.
Fresh fish from the market is flown to top restaurants around the world daily. Auctions for frozen tuna in particular are popular, with traders battling for the best catch. One fish can be sold for as much as 2 million yen.
