Visiting Toyosu Market

Last update : Oct 8th, 2020

The move from Tsukiji to the new Toyosu Market was supposed to take place in November 2016. A last minute reversal by the newly-elected Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has led to confusion and uncertainty over the status of Toyosu, which has cost the city over 5 billion USD to build.

The main issue was the contamination with toxic substances on the surface of the market. This is no surprise at the Toyosu was a former site of a facility run by Tokyo Gas.

The city has insisted enough additional work has been done to contain the matter and assure the safety of the food and workers at the market. Despite many questions over the safety, the Tokyo government went ahead with giving a green light for the opening and the new market opened for business on Oct 11th, 2018. 

Visitors have access from 5 am until 3pm on days the market is open. Unlike Tsukiji, visitors will not be allowed to walk on the same floor as the workers.; access will be restricted to a designated route. The new market basically consists of three areas as shown in the image above and entrances for each building is directly connected with the Shijo-mae station of the Yurikamome train.

The Fish Intermediate Wholesale Building is where the auctioned off fish end up and during the Tsukiji era, this was where you could walk in and see just about every type of fish on earth.

Unfortunately there is hardly any view from the viewing windows at Toyosu. There are only six incredibly small windows giving visitors no feel for all the action happening below.  Very disappointing for someone who had expected to see more!

This building is where most of the restaurants are operating; this includes the famous "Sushi Dai" (expect long queues as their place is no bigger than the one they had at Tsukiji) or the "Yoshinoya" gyu-don (beef bowl) place.

On the third floor, there are shops selling processed goods as well as kitchen equipment including knives. However you don't see any fish being sold here...

Perhaps the highlight of this building is the beautiful space at the rooftop. On a clear day, it's even possible to see Mount Fuji! Note that access is limited to a small elevator - you will see it on the way to the restaurants. 

The Fruit and Vegetable Market Building features state of the art facilities and is a huge improvement over the mess at former Tsukiji.

Again, through the observation path, visitors can get a view of all the movement including the early morning auctions which start from around 6:30. So it's actually possible to see the tuna auctions, then make a quick move to the fruit and veg section and not miss the best stuff.

Also the "Daiwa Sushi" restaurant moved into the shops on the ground floor, and perhaps because this area is less visited by tourists, the queues appeared to be shorter compared with the one in Tsukiji.

A new tourist facility opened in January 2020...

Perhaps to answer criticism that Toyosu was too boring for tourists, a new facility called Toyosu Marche Edomae Jokamachi opened with a total 21 stores/restaurants. This is a temporary project while a larger building featuring more retail space and an onsen hot springs opens in 2022. 

There probably was not much thought put into this facility with the rush to open it before the Olympics; the space is small and cramped with a bad layout - not really worth visiting at all.