Photo/Illutration The Tsukiji Outer Market in late December 2024 (Provided by Tsukiji Shoku no Machizukuri Kyogikai)

Tourists pack the Tsukiji Outer Market in the year-end New Year's frenzy but they are being asked to stay away this year because the crowds are driving away regular customers. 

An organization working to develop the area that was once the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo's Chuo Ward is for the first time calling on tourists to refrain from visiting in late December.

In 2024, major congestion was reported because of the huge numbers of tourists who were milling around or tasting the New Year's delicacies offered there.

Yoshitsugu Kitada, who heads the Tsukiji Shoku no Machizukuri Kyogikai (Council for building up Tsukiji as a food town) a nonprofit organization made up of businesses in the Tsukiji Outer Market, said the old Tsukiji market was originally a wholesale area for professionals.

"Infrastructure was never installed to accommodate tourists, but after the Tokyo Olympics, word of mouth has spread to bring in so many visitors that it is now in a state of overtourism,” Kitada said. 

On Dec. 1, the council put up posters at the visitors’ center asking tourists to stay away in December.

The congestion was so bad last year that some businesses expressed concern that their regular customers would end up going elsewhere.

The council also plans to ask agencies that handle guides for tours to cooperate with the plan to keep tourists out.

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