@ kaze
I tried to answer your question but I guess I wasn't clear enough. The reason you can tell who is a tourist/spectator is that you have to be pre-registered as an auction participant. Basically, you have to have a badge, papers, or something like that to get in. The point is that you need to prove that you are supposed to be there and the color of your skin or passport has nothing to do with it. It's not an auction open to the general public including the Japanese public; It's probably only open to people within that industry occupation. Discrimination is not irrelevant at all to how the story was spun by some of the local media who reported it. Many of the local media publications spun it into a story about how discrimination is justified in this case of supposedly *only* obnoxious gaijin. Maybe Japanese tourists tend not to go there because it is in their own country and the idea of a fish auction bores them to tears. (I know it would for me.) People on holiday in another country tend to be off from work and have more time on their hands for crap like this and getting into trouble. As the common expression goes, "Dont piss in your own pool."
Like I said before, it's not a normal "fish-market." Its an auction. That's why you can't just wander around. Lots of auctions aren't open to the general public so this story is barely newsworthy if at all. The selling point is obnoxious foreigners and not the story itself which is why they spun it that way.
@ Jasta
I wasn't trying to blame you. I was merely pointing out the TV report was molded to create a distinct highly biased reality that doesn't necessarily exist. If you type in "Tokyo Fish Market" into google news search you will find a whole load of different versions including one where a trader was quoted saying that southeast asians have been the main disturbance and that Europeans have only caused problems recently. But of course, this probably reflects the traders own personal bias because how is he immediately distinguishing that it is southeast Asians and not in fact Japanese sometimes? I'm guessing that the fish were mainly large and possibly hanging. The main problem other than photagraphy seems to be lots of people trying to pose with the fish which raised hygiene/safety concerns.
Just because the Europeans were the only ones shown being obnoxious doesn't mean that it represents the totality of the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if they have other footage of asians that was edited out, especially in light of what has been written in other versions of the same story.
I tried to answer your question but I guess I wasn't clear enough. The reason you can tell who is a tourist/spectator is that you have to be pre-registered as an auction participant. Basically, you have to have a badge, papers, or something like that to get in. The point is that you need to prove that you are supposed to be there and the color of your skin or passport has nothing to do with it. It's not an auction open to the general public including the Japanese public; It's probably only open to people within that industry occupation. Discrimination is not irrelevant at all to how the story was spun by some of the local media who reported it. Many of the local media publications spun it into a story about how discrimination is justified in this case of supposedly *only* obnoxious gaijin. Maybe Japanese tourists tend not to go there because it is in their own country and the idea of a fish auction bores them to tears. (I know it would for me.) People on holiday in another country tend to be off from work and have more time on their hands for crap like this and getting into trouble. As the common expression goes, "Dont piss in your own pool."
Like I said before, it's not a normal "fish-market." Its an auction. That's why you can't just wander around. Lots of auctions aren't open to the general public so this story is barely newsworthy if at all. The selling point is obnoxious foreigners and not the story itself which is why they spun it that way.
@ Jasta
I wasn't trying to blame you. I was merely pointing out the TV report was molded to create a distinct highly biased reality that doesn't necessarily exist. If you type in "Tokyo Fish Market" into google news search you will find a whole load of different versions including one where a trader was quoted saying that southeast asians have been the main disturbance and that Europeans have only caused problems recently. But of course, this probably reflects the traders own personal bias because how is he immediately distinguishing that it is southeast Asians and not in fact Japanese sometimes? I'm guessing that the fish were mainly large and possibly hanging. The main problem other than photagraphy seems to be lots of people trying to pose with the fish which raised hygiene/safety concerns.
Just because the Europeans were the only ones shown being obnoxious doesn't mean that it represents the totality of the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if they have other footage of asians that was edited out, especially in light of what has been written in other versions of the same story.
Edited: 2008-12-17, 12:41 pm
btw - Tsukiji talked about closing to tourists years ago - an ongoing issue I suppose.
