Tsukiji fish market
The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is the largest wholesale market of SBT in the world. Tsukiji handles more than 2,400 tons of fish, worth about US$20 million, a day, with pre-dawn auctions of tuna being the main feature. No tourists are allowed to enter the tuna wholesale areas, which they say is for purposes of sanitation and disruption to the auction process. Higher prices are charged for the highest quality fish; bluefin tuna worth over $150,000 have been sold at Tsukiji. In 2001, a 202-kilogram wild Pacific bluefin tuna caught in Tsugaru Straight near Omanachi I Aomori Prefecture sold for $173,600, or about $800 a kilogram. In 2013, a 222-kilogram Pacific bluefin tuna was sold at Tsukiji for $1.8 million, or about $8,000 per kilogram.