|
Theodore
C. Bestor is Professor of Anthropology and Japanese Studies at Harvard
University, and is past president of the American Anthropological
Association’s East Asian Studies Section and the Society for Urban
Anthropology. His many publications include: “Neighborhood Tokyo” (1989),” Doing
Fieldwork in Japan” (co-editor, 2003), and his most recent, “Tsukiji:
The Fish Market at the Center of the World” (2004). His current research
looks at the development of Japanese food culture and his ongoing project
on “Global Sushi” examines the “global reach” of
Japanese seafood markets, their impact on markets and fish industries,
and the popularity of sushi and other types of Japanese foods..
1.
Background
2.
Neighborhood Tokyo: Miyamoto-cho
3.
Tokyo's Tsukiji: The Fish Market and the Center of
the World
-Globalization
4.
Japanese Food Culture: Looking at Sushi as a Japanese
Food and Icon
5.
Issues of Food Safety and Hygiene
6.
Lessons to be Learned from the Field: Linking Kansas
with Japan
7. Concluding
Thoughts
Tokyo's
Tsukiji: The Fish Market and the Center of the World
-Globalization
L: Later, you specifically focused on the intermediate
traders. Could you describe in a nutshell a typical
morning at the fish market? If I walk in as a tourist,
what would I see at Tsukiji?
B: Well--you're going to see more fish than you ever
imagined. Tsukiji sells roughly 24 hundred metric tons
of fish everyday.
That's 2 million 400 thousand kilograms a day.
L: That’s phenomenal!
B: It's an absolutely amazing phenomenon. The only
standard of comparison I can give you is the Fulton
Fish Market in New York City which is the largest fish
market in North America. It handles only about one-sixth
that amount.
Obviously, Japanese food culture is centered on fish
so that's not surprising. But it astounding, at five
in the morning, to walk into this marketplace--tuna
lined up as far as the eye can see or crate after crate
after crate of shrimp. And [fish] from all over the
world. Not just Japanese fishing but Canadian, American,
Mexican, Chilean, West African, Spanish, Turkish, Tunisian,
Italian, Indian, Indonesian--
L: It really is astounding. Your research has taken
you to many parts of the world because of that--
B: Well--not as many parts as I'd like--but in the
course of trying to understand this global fishing
industry, and the way the distribution is centered
on this marketplace, I've done research now in Spanish
fishing ports. I've visited a couple of dozen fishing
ports on the Atlantic coast. I've gone to fishing markets
and ports in Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Essentially,
anywhere there is a coastline and sometimes where there
isn't. If people can catch fish or grow fish, they
are probably doing business in some way with the Japanese
fishing industry.
L: You had mentioned in your book that there is running
joke at Tsukiji the biggest Japanese seaport is Narita
airport. Is that right?
B: That's right. That's true in terms of the monetary
value of the fish. Fish that is flown to Japan by jet
is an enormous amount. And in fact, I've gone to the
Narita fish market. There is a wholesale market at
the airport where fish are brought in, they go through
customs inspection--it's off the map. The crates are
opened up and the people there make decisions about
whether this set of imported fish will go to Tokyo
or Yokohama or Kyoto or Osaka or wherever. From Narita
[the fish] can go almost anywhere in Japan.
L: As far as Tsukiji being an example of globalization,
can you tell us a little about the intermediate traders
themselves? You called them the "technicians of
globalization." What do you mean by this?
B: I referred to them as technicians in the
sense that in their day-to-day job they're not worried
about
globalization. They are worrying about where this fish
came from and where it's going to go. But it's in their
business that really, the nuts and bolts of all this
happened, because what they're doing is making decisions
on a daily basis and who to call. You know--calling
up a fish broker in Norway or a fish broker in New
York or a fish broker in Seoul--and saying, "What
are you sending? What's coming?" Or saying, "The
prices are down this week on such and such so don't
send anymore because we have enough."
So, on the one hand, they're coordinating
the flow--not because they're thinking globalization--but
they're
thinking, "My business depends on this, this,
and this. I know these people in other parts of the
world and I can call on them. "
L: "And how do we connect?"
B: Yes. And then the fish arrives and then
they're making decisions. "Is this a high quality
fish, a high quality tuna that is going to end up
in a Ginza
sushi bar being sold at fantastic prices? Is it something
that's going to be sold in supermarkets and cut up
in little plastic boxes and sold to housewives?"
So there are decisions on the selling end
that are determining what ordinary Japanese are going
to have
available to consume. Again, they’re not thinking
about it in abstract terms. They’re just thinking
that, “I’ve got 200 kilos of tuna, where
am I going to sell it?”
It’s in those mundane details, thinking about, “Where
can I get more of this? Who can I call to get more
shipped here? Where am I going to sell this stuff?” It’s
in those mundane details that the connections of globalization
are really being made.
The housewife, who buys Chilean salmon at
the supermarket, doesn’t necessarily stop to think about, “How
did Chilean salmon end up in my local supermarket?” But
you can trace it back in a chain of thirteen or fourteen
steps where people all along the way are simply in
their daily business, making lots of daily decisions
that end up creating the supply chain between a Chilean
fish farm and a Japanese supermarket.
L: You had mentioned that globalization at least by
Western scholars as the idea of the Western conglomerate.
What you describe is quite the reverse. It’s
switching the idea of globalization in the other direction
when talking about the Japanese market.
B: Exactly. So this stereotype of globalization
is this Western imperialism, Western businesses—taking
over—we’re the source. But, clearly, globalization
is taking place on a thousand different dimensions
all at once.
“Godzilla” is a primary example. In popular
culture, there are lots of things coming from Japan
to the United States or to the rest of Asia. In terms
of fish markets, food supply chains. I don’t
know that much about the grain business but I’m
sure there are lots Middle Western grain farmers—whether
it’s soybeans or wheat or corn—who are
producing things to be exported to Japan or China or
other parts of the world. It’s not that a Midwestern
grain farmer is on the periphery of the world. But
that there are different kinds of centers. There may
be centers for some businesses, some trade for some
commodities based in the United States and others may
be based overseas. Tsukiji is a perfect example of
a global center [that] drives all kinds of production
and distribution around the world.
L: Then, Tsukiji literally sets the prices worldwide?
B: The price at Tsukiji will determine, directly
or indirectly, the price that a fisherman gets in
Gloucester,
Massachusetts or Cartahena, Spain. It’s going
to be based on somebody looking at the market reports
and finding out [for example] tuna was down three-percent
yesterday, so the price drops around the world.
And it’s that kind of—I don’t know
what you’d call it exactly—globalization
with many centers. Each center perhaps only important
in some limited domain. But nonetheless, important
for that domain--Tsukiji may be totally irrelevant
to people in the computer business or in popular entertainment,
but on the docks on Maine it’s very important.
Just as in a grain elevator in the Midwest, the Chinese
price of sorghum may be crucial.
Next: Tokyo's
Tsukiji, cont: Cultural Stereotypes; Tuna
|
