Toyosu & Tsukiji: Opening Hours, Closed Days & Best Time to Visit

Toyosu Market and the Tsukiji Outer Market are both open roughly 5:00 AM to early afternoon, closed every Sunday, on most national holidays, during the New Year period, and — critically — on almost every Wednesday, so the single most important thing you can do before visiting is check the official business-day calendar for your exact date. This page pulls together the precise, area-by-area hours, the full closed-day pattern for 2026, and a decision-oriented “when to go” guide so you don’t waste a Tokyo morning turning up at a shuttered market.

The dates and times below are verified against 2026 primary sources (the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Toyosu Market Association, and the Tsukiji Outer Market official site) as of August 2026. The market authority can add or move closed days for holidays and special demand, and every individual shop and restaurant sets its own hours — always confirm your specific date against the official calendar (links in the “How to Check Before You Go” section) before you travel.

• Toyosu Market (the wholesale market with the tuna auction): Visitor access 5:00 AM–5:00 PM. Closed Sundays, most national holidays, most Wednesdays, and the New Year period.
• Tsukiji Outer Market (the retail food street — this is what most people mean by “Tsukiji fish market” today): Most shops around 5:00–6:00 AM to early afternoon, with the crush of eateries winding down by 2:00–3:00 PM. Follows the same wholesale-market calendar, but many individual food stalls and restaurants open anyway on Sundays and closed Wednesdays. Which stalls, and in what order to eat them, is covered in our Tsukiji Outer Market street food guide.
• The golden rule: Wednesday is the trap. Nearly every Wednesday in 2026 is a market closed day. Go on a Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday unless you have checked that a specific Wednesday is a trading day.

Toyosu Market — Opening Hours by Area

General visitor entry to Toyosu Market runs 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM on business days, but that headline figure hides the real answer, which depends entirely on what you came to do. The tuna auction is over before 7:00 AM; the restaurants start closing in the early afternoon. Here is the breakdown.

Booking tip: If you want the close-up deck without gambling on the lottery, several GetYourGuide early-morning market tours handle the auction logistics and guide you through the halls. → See Toyosu tours →

For the full walk-through of the auction mechanics and how to apply for the lottery, see our dedicated guide: Toyosu tuna auction viewing & lottery timings →.

Toyosu Market — Closed Days in Full (2026)

This is the heart of the page. Toyosu follows the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market business-day calendar, which closes on:

• Every Sunday (with rare special-opening exceptions — in 2026, Sunday December 27 is a special trading day before New Year).
• Most national holidays.
• Most Wednesdays (explained below).
• The extended New Year period.

Understanding the Wednesday logic — clearly

Guidebooks say “closed some Wednesdays,” which badly undersells the problem. Here is the accurate 2026 reality: almost every Wednesday is a closed day. The useful thing to memorise is not which Wednesdays are closed but the short list of Wednesdays that are actually open.

Why Wednesdays? The market’s closed days are set by the Governor per commodity category, on the advice of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market’s transaction-operations council, weighing three official factors: the impact on Tokyo residents’ food supply, the labour conditions of market workers, and the shipping situation of producing regions. In practice the market uses a mid-week closure (Wednesday) as its main “rest” day on top of Sunday. It then opens selected Wednesdays to compensate when a week loses trading days to national holidays or faces a demand spike — this is the “balancing the trading calendar” logic. So the open Wednesdays cluster around holiday weeks (Golden Week, Obon, the autumn holidays) and the busy run-up to year-end.

A common misconception: there is a widespread myth that the rule is “closed 2nd and 4th Wednesday.” That does not hold for 2026 — most months have all their Wednesdays closed. The official sources describe a consultation-based, case-by-case process, not a fixed arithmetic rule. Do not rely on any “2nd and 4th Wednesday” shortcut; check the calendar.

The 2026 open (trading) Wednesdays — fish side (i.e. the exceptions when the seafood market is open on a Wednesday): May 6, August 12, September 23, October 14, November 4, November 25, and December 30. Every other Wednesday in 2026 is closed.

The full 2026 closed-day list (seafood side)

Beyond every Sunday (except Dec 27) and national holidays (open on the May 6 & Sep 23 holidays), the seafood market is additionally closed on these 2026 dates:

• January: 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28
• February: 4, 18, 25
• March: 4, 11, 18, 25
• April: 1, 8, 15, 22
• May: 13, 20, 27
• June: 3, 10, 17, 24
• July: 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
• August: 5, 14, 15, 19, 26
• September: 2, 9, 16, 30
• October: 7, 21, 28
• November: 11, 18
• December: 2, 9, 16, 23, 31

Remaining 2026 (from now through December): Combining the list above with every Sunday and the relevant national holidays, the seafood-side closed dates for the rest of the year are — August: 14, 15, 19, 23 (Sun), 26, 30 (Sun); September: 2, 6 (Sun), 9, 13 (Sun), 16, 20 (Sun), 21 (holiday), 27 (Sun), 30; October: 4 (Sun), 7, 11 (Sun), 18 (Sun), 21, 25 (Sun), 28; November: 1 (Sun), 3 (holiday), 8 (Sun), 11, 15 (Sun), 18, 22 (Sun), 23 (holiday), 29 (Sun); December: 2, 6 (Sun), 9, 13 (Sun), 16, 20 (Sun), 23, 31, plus the New Year run.

A note on sourcing: the list above is derived from the official JNTO/TMG 2026 English business-day calendar. National holidays land on Sep 21 (Respect for the Aged Day), Sep 23 (Autumnal Equinox — market open), Nov 3 (Culture Day), and Nov 23 (Labour Thanksgiving). Always cross-check, as holiday-week adjustments are exactly where guides go wrong.

Produce vs. seafood — the divergent closures

The Fruit & Vegetable (produce) side and the Fish (seafood) side do not always share the same closed days. In 2026 there are four dates where the produce side is closed but the seafood side stays open: Wednesday October 14, Wednesday November 4, Wednesday November 25, and Tuesday December 30. There are no 2026 dates where the reverse happens (fish closed, produce open). The 2026 English calendar’s legend lists an “Except of the Building related to the Fish market” category, but no dates fall under it this year.

Annual operating-day totals for 2026: the seafood section is open 251 days (≈114 closed days) and the produce section 247 days (≈118 closed). This lines up with the commonly cited figure of around 116 closed days per year.

The 2025–2026 New Year closure

• The market held special/heavy trading through late December 2025, then closed December 31, 2025 through January 4, 2026.
• On Tuesday, December 30, 2025, only the seafood section operated; the produce section was already closed.
• The first auction of 2026 was held on Monday, January 5, 2026 — confirmed by AP and CNN, which describe “the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market … at the predawn auction on Monday.” At that ceremonial New Year sale, a 243 kg (535 lb) Ōma bluefin sold for a record ¥510.3 million (about US$3.2 million) — roughly ¥2.1 million/kg — to Kiyomura Corp. (Sushi Zanmai); owner Kiyoshi Kimura “broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019.” (This is a wildly higher, one-off ceremonial price; a normal day’s large tuna sells for a small fraction of it.)

Where to find the official calendar

The direct English 2026 Toyosu business-day calendar (PDF) is published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at: https://www.english.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/documents/d/english/businessdaycalendar2026-pdf It uses a colour-coded grid: Opened, Closed, and two “Opened except one building” categories for the produce/fish divergences. The Toyosu Market Association also mirrors this at toyosu-market.or.jp/en/.

Plan Your Visit With a Guide

If you’d rather not track Wednesday exceptions and lottery windows yourself, most travellers pair their visit with a guided Toyosu tuna-auction tour, a Tsukiji Outer Market food walk, or a combination tour covering both markets in one morning — the operator builds the schedule around a confirmed trading day for you. Our Tokyo fish market tours comparison sets the formats side by side — auction mornings, food walks, private guides and sushi-making classes — with what each one does and doesn’t include.

Two things are worth knowing before you pick a date. Tours view the auction from the free upper walkway; no operator can reserve the lottery-only close-up deck, though many will enter you in the official draw if you book by about the 5th of the preceding month — the tuna auction and lottery guide covers the application windows. And because the market closes on Sundays, most Wednesdays and holidays, free cancellation matters more here than on a typical tour — a closed-day surprise is the most common way a Toyosu morning goes wrong.

Tsukiji Outer Market — Hours & Closed Days

The Tsukiji Outer Market is the retail food district that never moved — hundreds of shops, stalls and restaurants in narrow lanes. (The wholesale auction left for Toyosu in 2018.) It nominally follows the same wholesale-market calendar, but the crucial nuance is that every shop sets its own hours, and a meaningful subset stay open even when the wholesale market is closed. See our full Tsukiji Outer Market guide for what to eat, shop for, and see there.

• Typical hours: Most seafood and produce shops open around 5:00–6:00 AM; restaurants around 6:00–7:00 AM. Many close by 1:00–2:00 PM, and by 3:00 PM the market is effectively done.
• The three official time windows (per the market association): professional buyers’ hours ~6:00–9:00 AM, general public 9:00 AM–2:00 PM, and flexible/wind-down after 2:00 PM.
• Sundays & Wednesdays: On days the wholesale market is closed, larger fishmongers and the serious seafood vendors tend to close, while many food stalls, tamagoyaki shops and restaurants open anyway (often on reduced, later hours — commonly opening around 10:00 AM). A Sunday visit is possible but gives you a thinner line-up.
• Tsukiji Uogashi (the indoor market in the Odawarabashi & Kaikobashi buildings): shops ~5:00 AM–3:00 PM; the ground-floor wholesale area prioritises professional buyers until 9:00 AM — tourists are welcome to browse but should wait until after 9:00. The upstairs Uogashi Shokudo food court restaurants run roughly 7:00 AM–2:00 PM (hours vary by restaurant).
• Plat Tsukiji (the official information centre): Weekdays & Saturday 8:00 AM–2:00 PM; Sundays, holidays and market-closure days 10:00 AM–2:00 PM. Closed for the year-end/New Year holidays. (Its public lounge opens earlier — 6:00 AM weekdays.) English-speaking staff, maps, lockers, ATM and tax-refund counter.
• New Year: The Outer Market closes for the New Year period, roughly December 30 to January 4. Late December (around Dec 28–30) is the single most crowded stretch of the year as locals stock up on New Year seafood — the market itself asks tourists to consider avoiding those days.

The official Tsukiji calendar: tsukiji.or.jp/english/calendar/. Read the colour coding as: regular closing day, temporary opening day, opening day, plus markers for special events and workshops. Note the calendar shows the Tokyo Central Wholesale Market business days — individual shops may differ, so it is a guide, not a guarantee. (In 2026 there are a few “special trading days,” including one Sunday, when the market opens on an otherwise-closed day.)

Closed-Day Pattern — Both Markets Side by Side

See our full comparison: Tsukiji vs Toyosu — which should you visit? →

Best Time to Visit

Toyosu — hour by hour

• 4:30 AM: Too early for the first train; only taxi or overnight-stay arrivals. The doors aren’t open yet, but this is when you’d need to leave central Tokyo by cab to make the auction.
• 5:00 AM: Visitor walkways open. Buyers are already inspecting the tailless frozen and fresh tuna laid out in rows. Head straight to the upper auction walkway for a window spot.
• 5:17 AM: The earliest possible train arrival, via a back-route transfer at Toyosu — too late for the walkway opening and leaving no real margin for the lottery meeting.
• 5:30 AM: Lottery-deck winners assemble at the PR Corner. The tuna auction is about to begin.
• 5:45–6:25 AM: Peak spectacle — the tuna auction in full swing, bells ringing, rapid-fire bidding.
• 6:30 AM: Produce auction begins over in Block 5; the seafood side is winding down.
• 7:00 AM: Prime breakfast-sushi time — but the queues at the famous counters are already long. Our best sushi at Toyosu guide covers which counters to skip the queue for.
• 8:00–9:00 AM: Restaurants busy; PR Corner opens (8:30). A relaxed time to browse Uogashi Yokocho.
• 10:00 AM–noon: Calmer; good for a late sushi breakfast/early lunch and the rooftop garden. Some restaurants begin to sell out.
• Afternoon: Many restaurants close by 2:00–3:00 PM. By late afternoon the market is quiet; visitor entry technically runs to 5:00 PM but there’s little happening.

Best days for Toyosu: A weekday (Tue/Thu/Fri) that is a confirmed trading day. Allow 2–3 hours for the auction plus breakfast and a wander.

Tsukiji Outer Market — hour by hour

• 5:00–7:00 AM: Shops prepping; primarily professionals. Atmospheric but many stalls aren’t fully serving yet.
• 8:00–11:00 AM: The sweet spot — stalls fully stocked, food stalls serving, crowds still manageable (professionals have priority until 9:00 AM, so tourists are asked to hold back in the wholesale sections until then).
• 9:00 AM–noon: Crowd peak. Lines for tamagoyaki and sushi stretch down the lanes; Saturdays are the busiest of all.
• Noon–2:00 PM: Still busy but stock is thinning; the best stalls start closing.
• After 2:00–3:00 PM: Effectively shut. Don’t arrive this late.

Best days for Tsukiji: Tuesday, Thursday or Friday morning for the best mix of full stock and walkable crowds. Saturday is doable but heaving. Sunday is a reduced, later line-up. Allow 1.5–2 hours.

Seasonal considerations

• New Year (hatsu-uri / New Year shopping): The most extreme crowds of the year hit Tsukiji in late December; the first Toyosu auction (early January) is a media event with ceremonial record tuna prices. Both markets then close for the New Year break.
• Cherry blossom season (late March–early April): Heavy tourist crowds citywide; markets busy. teamLab Planets runs a cherry-blossom special production (in 2026, roughly March 1–April 30).
• Summer heat: Toyosu is largely indoors, covered and climate-controlled — a real advantage in July/August. Tsukiji is open-air and can be sweltering; go at opening.
• Winter cold: Comfortable at Tsukiji, but the Toyosu auction hall is refrigerated and genuinely cold — dress warmly for a dawn visit. Winter is also peak season for crab, oysters, fugu (pufferfish) and other prized cold-water seafood.
• Seasonal sweets: Strawberry daifuku (ichigo daifuku) is a winter-to-spring highlight (strawberry season runs roughly late December through May) — a signature Tsukiji street snack.

Doing both markets in one morning

The ambitious-but-doable plan: Toyosu at dawn for the auction (from 5:00 AM), then travel the short hop to Tsukiji for breakfast around 8:00 AM and browse the Outer Market before the 9:00 AM–noon crush. The two sites are about 3 km apart. Only attempt this on a day that is a trading day for both.

Adjacent Attractions — Hours Travellers Also Need

Because a market visit is short and early, most people pair it with something nearby. Here are the hours you’ll want.

First Train Times — Can You Arrive in Time?

Short answer: Not comfortably. The earliest possible train arrival at Shijō-mae is 05:17, via a specific back-route — not the obvious direct route.

• The fastest route: transfer from an early Tokyo Metro Yurakuchō Line train (reaching Toyosu Station around 05:05–05:09) onto the first northbound Yurikamome train departing Toyosu at 05:15, arriving Shijō-mae at 05:17. This applies on both weekdays and weekends.
• The obvious route — Yurikamome from Shimbashi: the first train departs 05:45 and reaches Shijō-mae only at 06:12 — nearly an hour later, and well after the auction is underway.

Therefore, to see the tuna auction reliably you must either:

1. Take a taxi. The only reliable way to arrive with margin before 5:30 AM. Budget for a pre-dawn fare from central Tokyo (qualitatively, expect an early-morning premium).
2. Stay nearby overnight. Waterfront hotels, or — a popular hack — spend the night at the 24-hour Tokyo Toyosu Manyo Club onsen a few minutes’ walk away, then walk over at dawn.

Even the fastest possible train (05:17 arrival) leaves no real margin for the 5:30 AM lottery meeting once you factor in the walk to Block 7 — treat it as a fallback, not a plan. Our guide to getting to Toyosu Market has the full first-train table, taxi times and app advice. If you’re not chasing the auction, the first trains are perfectly fine: arrive 7:00–9:00 AM for breakfast and browsing — and our honest assessment of whether Toyosu is worth visiting makes the case that for many travellers this is the better plan anyway.

What If You Turn Up on a Closed Day?

Don’t panic — the area still has plenty going, and this is exactly why checking the calendar matters.

At Toyosu on a closed day:

• The auction and wholesale halls are shut and most market restaurants are closed.
• The Block 6 rooftop green space is reportedly still accessible on some closed days — worth it for the Rainbow Bridge and bay views.
• Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai stays open (shops from ~10:00 AM, restaurants later), and the Manyo Club onsen is open 24 hours — so you can still eat, shop and soak.
• teamLab Planets is a short walk away (if you have a timed ticket).

At Tsukiji on a closed day (Sunday/closed Wednesday):

• Many food stalls and restaurants open anyway, often from around 10:00 AM, so a food-focused visit is still viable — just with a thinner line-up and the bigger fishmongers shut.
• Tsukiji Hongwanji temple, Cafe Tsumugi, and Namiyoke Inari Shrine are open regardless of the market calendar.

Nearby alternatives any day: Ginza (a 10-minute walk from Tsukiji), Odaiba (a few Yurikamome stops from Toyosu), teamLab Planets, and the Hamarikyu Gardens between Tsukiji and Shiodome.

How to Check Before You Go — Checklist

Because this page is entirely time-sensitive, verify your specific date:

1. Toyosu (official): Open the TMG English business-day calendar PDF → english.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/documents/d/english/businessdaycalendar2026-pdf. Confirm your date is “Opened” (and check the produce/fish note if you care about vegetables).
2. Tsukiji Outer Market (official): tsukiji.or.jp/english/calendar/. Read the colour key; remember individual shops vary.
3. Tuna auction lottery: Apply via the official lottery site the month before, or book a tour that applies for you.
4. teamLab Planets: Buy timed tickets in advance on the official site; check the monthly maintenance-closure dates.
5. How far ahead: Check the calendar as soon as you fix your travel dates, and again the week before in case of holiday adjustments.
6. If the calendar is only in Japanese: Use the English TMG/JNTO PDF (linked above) as your primary source, or run the Japanese page through a browser translator. Colour = status: red/marked generally means closed.

Booking Your Visit

A guided early-morning tour is the low-stress way to see the auction and eat well without gambling on the lottery or the trains — most GetYourGuide market tours include the auction viewing, a walk through the halls, and a sushi breakfast, and the operator handles timing. → Browse Toyosu tours →

FAQ

What are Toyosu Market’s opening hours? Visitor entry is 5:00 AM–5:00 PM on business days. The tuna auction runs about 5:30–6:30 AM; most restaurants open 5:00–6:00 AM and close by 2:00–3:00 PM.

What are Tsukiji Outer Market’s opening hours? Most shops open around 5:00–6:00 AM and wind down by 1:00–2:00 PM, with the market effectively closed by 3:00 PM. Individual shops set their own hours.

Is Tsukiji fish market still open in 2026? Yes. Only the wholesale auction moved to Toyosu in 2018. The Tsukiji Outer Market — hundreds of shops and restaurants — is very much open.

Which days are Toyosu and Tsukiji closed? Sundays, most national holidays, most Wednesdays, and the New Year period. The 2026 open Wednesdays for Toyosu’s seafood side are May 6, Aug 12, Sep 23, Oct 14, Nov 4, Nov 25 and Dec 30.

Is the market open on Wednesday? Usually no — nearly every Wednesday in 2026 is a closed day. Only a handful of Wednesdays (listed above) are trading days. Always check the calendar.

Are Toyosu and Tsukiji ever open on Sundays? The wholesale market is closed Sundays (with rare special-opening Sundays such as Dec 27, 2026). At Tsukiji Outer Market, many eateries open on Sundays anyway.

What’s the best time to visit Tsukiji? 8:00–11:00 AM on a weekday — stalls are stocked and crowds are still manageable before the 9:00 AM–noon peak.

What’s the best time to visit Toyosu? Arrive by 5:00 AM for the auction, or 7:00–9:00 AM for a sushi breakfast. Weekdays are best; avoid closed Wednesdays.

Can I get there by first train for the tuna auction? Not comfortably. The earliest possible arrival is 05:17 via a back-route transfer, which is too late for the walkway opening and leaves no real margin for a lottery meeting. Take a taxi or stay nearby overnight.

Do I need to book to see the tuna auction? Not for the upper walkway (free, first-come from 5:00 AM). The close-up lower deck requires winning a monthly online lottery.

How long should I spend at each market? Toyosu: 2–3 hours. Tsukiji: 1.5–2 hours.

What happens if I turn up on a closed day? Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai (from ~10:00 AM), the 24-hour Manyo Club onsen, the rooftop green space, teamLab Planets, and at Tsukiji the temple, Cafe Tsumugi and many eateries remain accessible.

When is it busiest? Late December (New Year shopping) is the most crowded time of year at Tsukiji, followed by cherry-blossom season and Saturdays year-round.