Plan to move Tokyo's huge Tsukiji fish market divides traders and customers

As most of Tokyo sleeps, men in rubber boots haggle over tuna in the halls of Tsukiji market.

The clang of a bell around 5.30am kicks off the action at the world's biggest fish emporium. Traders flash hand signs and bellow out prices as they buy and sell what will soon end up on plates in the Japanese capital and beyond.

In all, about US$18 million worth of fish, seafood and vegetables - over 2,900 tonnes - change hands each day at the market.

"Do you see how we use hand signs?" asks one bidder, seconds after another man violently rings the bell and starts yelling out bids. "This is exactly how people used to trade stocks in the old days."

Little has changed in the way business is done at Tsukiji since its opening in 1935. Now, almost 80 years later, the city plans to move the market to a new location and give the popular tourist draw what advocates say is a technological update. Not everyone is happy about the move away from prime real-estate in the centre of the metropolis.

Relocating the market and building to a modern facility about 40 per cent larger with state-of-the-art refrigeration will cost upwards of US$3.8 billion.