Tsukiji tuna auction off limits during yearend

The popular tuna auctions at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo will be closed to sightseers during the New Year season.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government decided to ban tours of the tuna bidding floor by visitors from this Thursday to January 23rd, when a higher than usual volume of tuna is put up for auction.

It imposed the ban for the first time a year ago, after complaints mounted that visitors disrupted the bidding by touching the fish, taking flash photos and behaving inappropriately.

Notices of the ban will be posted at the entrance to the market and guards will be deployed around the tuna auction floor to keep tourists out.

Areas except for the tuna floor, including those for bidding on other fish and the eatery sections, will remain open.

Several hundred foreign visitors view the tuna auction each day. The market is one of the largest in the world.