【Reading】じょうない

【English Name】inner market

Jonai (inside the market) is an industry term referring to the interior grounds of a wholesale market. In the sushi industry, it mainly refers, at the former Tsukiji Market and at Toyosu Market, to the area of the market proper where wholesale dealers and intermediate wholesalers conduct auctions.

The shopping street of retail shops and restaurants formed around the periphery is called jogai (outside the market), used in contrast with jonai. Jonai is a business area where professional buyers gather, and compared with jogai, the proportion of general customers and tourists tended to be lower.

The jonai of Tsukiji Market had an area of about 23 hectares, where 7 wholesale dealers of marine products and about 820 marine-product intermediate wholesalers did business. The intermediate wholesalers organized gyokai (trade associations) by handled item, and associations such as the tuna-specialist Omono Gyokai and the Ebi Kyokai (Shrimp Association) existed.

Even after Tsukiji Market ended operations in October 2018 and relocated to Toyosu Market, the custom of expressing purchasing as buying jonai remains among sushi artisans and fishmongers. It is also a familiar word as a sushi-shop jargon term (fucho).