Wholesaler

Wholesalers receive goods from the shippers and sell them to intermediate wholesalers and authorized buyers through auctions and related-party transactions in the wholesale area of the market. Wholesalers must receive a permit from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Related retailer

Related retailers sell related food products such as seaweed and tea, along with kitchen utensils, to visitors to the market. The parties who operate restaurants or transportation services at the market are also related retailers. Related retailers must receive a permit from the Governor of Tokyo.

Authorized buyer

Authorized buyers are parties such as retailers, food processing companies and regional wholesale market vendors who purchase goods through auctions and related-party transactions in the same way as intermediate wholesalers. Authorized buyers must receive a permit from the Governor of Tokyo.

Intermediate wholesaler

Intermediate wholesalers buy goods from the wholesalers and sell them in intermediate wholesale stores, where they are purchased by buyers such as retailers and restaurants. Intermediate wholesalers must receive a permit from the Governor of Tokyo.

Retailer

Retailers purchase their goods from the intermediate wholesalers and provide them to consumers in facilities such as retail stores and restaurants. Retailers come not only from Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures but from all over Japan to purchase goods sold at Toyosu Market.

Large volumes of fish caught around Japan arrive in large trucks or refrigerated trucks.

Our wholesalers receive the delivered goods and arrange them in the wholesale area.

It's the wholesalers' job to prepare for the auctions by weighing the fish they have received and providing information on where the fish came from.

The goods are carefully inspected by intermediate wholesalers and authorized buyers with experience and track records spanning many years.

These experts prepare for the auction by stringently checking factors such as the size, quality and freshness, selecting which items they want to buy and deciding how much they are willing to pay.

They inspect the quality and freshness of the fish, along with factors such as how much was delivered, then decide which fish they want to buy and how much they want to pay for it.

It's time for the auctions to start.

The market comes alive with auctions for seafood such as tuna, sea urchin and prawns in various selling areas.

The intermediate wholesalers and other buyers bid by holding up a finger when the wholesaler calls out a price that they are willing to pay.

The highest bidder gets to buy the item.

There are several types of auctions, including the classic auction format, where the price is raised until only the highest bidder is left, and one-shot auctions, where each bidder is only allowed to bid once.

The intermediate wholesalers take the goods they have purchased in the wholesale area to their own stores in the market and divide the goods into sizes and quantities that can be sold easily.

The goods are then sold to buyers from stores such as fish stores and sushi restaurants, who load them into trucks and take them to their stores.

After the fish is purchased from intermediate wholesale stores, it is brought to our related retailers' stores and restaurants, which is where it reaches your shopping basket or plate.

The wholesalers find out about factors such as catches and sales from their customers and contacts in their products' areas of origin, and use that information to prepare for the next day's trading.

The wholesale and intermediate wholesale areas are cleaned up. By this time, the market is quiet again.

Meanwhile, the wholesalers clean up after the day's auction. Just a few hours later, the next day's goods arrive and the preparations for the next auctions begin.