The Tsukiji fish market is located in Tsukiji in central Tokyo, between the Sumida River and the Ginza district. There are two distinct sections of the market as a whole. The “inner market” (jōnai-shijō): a wholesale market, where approximately 900 wholesale dealers operate small stalls and where the auctions as well as most of the processing of the fish occur. The “outer market” (jōgai-shijō): a mixture of wholesale and retail shops selling kitchen tools, restaurant supplies, groceries, and seafood, as well as many restaurants.
築地市場
Tsukiji Fish Market (Tokyo Fish Market)
A huge net is being dragged across the sea floor, destroying everything in its path. Ahead of it bloom undersea forests and their hundreds and thousands of living creatures, both plant and animal; behind it is a desert. The net is pulled to the surface and most of the dead and dying life forms in it are thrown out. A few marketable species are retained. [Trawling] is like taking a front-end loader and scraping up your entire front garden and shredding it, keeping a few pebbles, and dumping the rest of it down the drain.
Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008), p. 191.
