To some, a trip to Tokyo wouldn't be complete without a visit to Tsukiji Market. The 80 year old fish market, which happens to be the world's largest, is seen as a living shrine to the country's culinary ethos of having the freshest ingredients prepared simply and skillfully.
Tourists from around the world flock to the site to sample the sushi prepared on-site or to witness the famous Tuna auctions. All in all, About 480 different varieties of fish and 270 varieties of fruit and vegetables are sold at the market on a daily basis.
However, the institution faces an uncertain future in 2016 when the wholesale market is relocated to a new spot in the Toyosu district of Tokyo's Koto Ward.
Jogai, the smaller, retail focused area, will remain - but some are worried that the loss of the wholesale market - and the many working class food professionals that constitute it, will spell an end to the idea of Tsukiji as we know it.
The Japan Times writes that the existing Tsukiji Market was simply too old to service the country's burgeoning demand for seafood.
"The existing 23-hectare Tsukiji market is going to be reborn in Toyosu on a multiple-floored 40-hectare site." Indicates the report. "The area will be divided into three separate buildings and, unlike the existing market, the auctioning space will be housed in one facility and intermediate wholesalers will be located in another."
In interviews with the New York Times, some of Jogai's vendors have voiced their concern about Tsukiji's future post-2016.
"I don't know if the customers will keep coming when the wholesale market leaves," said Goro Wakabayashi, a Jogai-based Ramen vendor.
If there was ever a time to make a trip to Japan, it should be now.
