[TinyRedLeaf]

Operation Tsukiji: Tokyo prepares to battle rats as iconic fish market shuts

Tokyo (Sept 12, 2018): The operation must be ruthless, thorough and silent. Without alerting the watchful enemy, a unit of highly trained Japanese agents will throw up a ring of steel to block any escape from the vast battleground.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, the unit's chief commander is confident of total victory against the enemy army: tens of thousands of rats expected to scurry loose when the world-famous Tsukiji fish market closes next month.

The 23ha market near Tokyo's swanky Ginza district is home to "not thousands but tens of thousands" of rats, attracted by fish offcuts and the market's maze of sewers, according to Tatsuo Yabe, a rat expert.

To prevent a mass exodus of rodents from Tsukiji, Tokyo officials — helped by veteran rat exterminators — are busy blocking pipe and sewer exits, and plugging holes in fences with corrugated sheets.

Before the market is torn down, they will erect an impregnable 3-metre steel wall around the site and slowly move in through the perimeter to "corner and catch" the rats, said the operation's commander, who asked not to be named.

In addition, they will install 40,000 sticky sheets to catch rodents, along with traps and 300kg of rat poison.

Tokyo exterminator GP Corporation has told clients in the area to keep their eyes peeled.

"We are calling on them to stay vigilant and not even keep the doors open because sewer rats may come right in once the moving starts," said Mr Kazuya Takahashi from the company.

AFP

I can't help but be reminded of this scene from Mononoke Hime:

OKKOTO: Look on my tribe, Moro. We grow small, and we grow stupid. We will soon be nothing but squealing game that the humans hunt for their meat.

MORO: You'd risk everything on one last battle. That's just what the humans want.

OKKOTO: I do not ask for the help of the Wolf Tribe. Even if everyone of us dies, it will be a battle the humans will never forget.