Yōkoso! to Tsukiji Market again!

Finally it  happened…Tsukiji Market will reopen its doors for tourists after a long time where only employees and bidders could enter the market.

Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market will resume admitting sightseers on Jan. 19 after a monthlong lockout following complaints about visitor behavior, officials of the Tokyo metropolitan government said Saturday.

The metropolitan government had notified embassies and travel agents that the market would shut out sightseers from its popular tuna auctioning area from Dec. 15 to Jan. 17.

About 90 percent of visitors to the 5:30 a.m. tuna auctions are foreign tourists and as many as 500 people a day have visited to see the auctions.

The local government has decided on the resumption because the tuna auctioning tour is an important part of Tokyo’s tourism business, they said.

When the tours resume, handbills of warning will be given out at the front gate of the market.

The flyers, written in English, Chinese, Korean and Russian, will stipulate bans on flash photography and touching the tuna.

The metropolitan government said it has gained the understanding of market participants, who had complained of some sightseers taking flash photos and touching or poking the tuna with sticks.

The tours were suspended partly because the area will be particularly crowded due to increased tuna deals around the New Year period.

Source: BreitBart.com

Guess they changed their mind because after all, Tsukiji Market is considered an important landmark for tourism around the world. Hope the tourists learn their lesson about the causes that made the ban for them in the first place.

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