第十二回　分岐点

築地市場では毎日20億円の水産物が取引され、取扱魚種は450種類も及ぶ。

勿論、全ての取引情報が手元に集まり、仕訳整理するまでは言わないが、かなりの生データーを毎日大量に処理する。

数魚種のプロフェッショナルになるセリ人とは違い、彼はスーパーオールラウンダーになるくらいの魚種相場を自然と学んでいく事になった。

意識が変われば行動が変わる。

行動が変われば結果が変わる。

彼は病気前に配属された鮮魚部の中で数多くの部門を担当することになった。

当初の高級魚グループから北海三陸グループへ移動する。

ここでは一般大衆魚であるアジ・サバ・イワシなどからサワラ・イナダ・アンコウ・カレイまで幅広く魚種を学んだ。

そして、養殖魚グループにてハマチ・カンパチなどを取り扱い、鮮魚部で扱う魚種のほぼ全部を見て学んだ。

前向きな姿勢が功を奏したのかは定かではないが、いつの間にか眩暈についても改善、後遺症は聴力障害だけとなった。

「そろそろ辞めようかな..」入社5年目、病気から這い上がり3年が経とうとしていた。

元々からの考え方ではあったが、将来は独立して自分で事業を組み立てしていきたいという気持ちがあった。

飲食店・魚屋など、アイデアはあるものの本当にこれがしたいのか、自問自答の日々が続いていた。

そのような矢先、「疋田、来月より塩冷部に移動してくれ」という突然の内示を受けた。

塩冷部とは冷凍品グループのことで、干物などの既に製品化されているものもあれば、サバ・サケといった原料商材も扱う幅広い部署だった。

「これは面白いかもしれない」当時の彼は快諾した。

鮮魚部と塩冷部には大きく分けて2つの異なる点があった。

一つ目が“勤務開始時間”だ。

鮮魚時代は午前0時半起床・1時出社であったが、塩冷時代は午前3時半起床・4時出社であった。

これは商流物流に起因し、やはり生モノと冷凍モノという点で考え方も異なっていた。

二つ目が“在庫に対する考え方”だ。

鮮魚時代は当たり前だが鮮度が命、今日入荷した魚は今日売る事が一番良いことだと明確であった。

しかし、塩冷部は180°考え方が異なる。

例えば、「サケは川で生まれ、海へ下り、３-4年間に海で捕食活動を行いながら広範囲を回遊し、そして生まれた川に産卵の為に戻ってくる。そして沿岸域に寄ってきた個体を定置網など漁獲する」つまり、顔なじみである朝の焼ザケ定食の原料は9～12月にしか漁獲出来ない。

その為、一年分を在庫し、一番高い需要期に販売する形になる。

「在庫が悪とする鮮魚部と、在庫が良となる塩冷部」その考え方を一つに注目してみても正反対であり、そのような異なる性格を社内に抱えている企業にまだまだ自分としては学ぶ余地を感じていくことになった。

Episode 12. The crossroad.

26 April. 2020

TSUKIJI UO ICHIBA handles US$20 million of marine products each day, and they trade over 450 kinds of seafood.

Of course, I wouldn’t say that I processed and organized all of that sales information, but I did process a lot of raw data.

It’s different from an auctioneer who is a professional of a few kinds of fish; I learned the market price of all fish species, which helped me become a super all-rounder.

If you change your consciousness, your behaviour will change.

If the behaviour changes, the result will change.

I was working in a lot of groups at the fresh fish department that I belonged to.

I moved to the Hokkaido and Sanriku area group from the high-grade fish department.

I learned a wide range of knowledge about popular fish like Mackerel, Horse Mackerel, Sardines, Spanish Mackerel, Japanese Amberjack, Monkfish and Flatfish. After that, I moved to the farmed fish group to learned about Yellowtail and Amberjack.

I learned almost all of the fish species that were handled by the fresh fish department.

I’m not sure whether my positive attitude helped or not, but my dizziness disappeared without my even noticing, and the only aftereffect was hearing impairment.

“I’m thinking about quitting my job…” This was my fifth year at this company and it had been almost three years since I recovered from the disease.

I was thinking that I want to be independent and start my own business.

Restaurant business, Seafood store, etc; I had ideas but I wasn’t sure I really wanted to do these businesses.

I repeatedly asked myself and answered my own questions at that time. Just when I was considering leaving the company, I got an unofficial announcement.

My boss suddenly told me “Hikita, please move to the salted and frozen seafood department from next month.”

That department is a frozen product group and it is a wide ranging department that sells processed products such as dry fish, as well as handling materials such as Mackerel and Salmon.

“That sounds interesting.” I accepted this offer.

There were two big differences between the fresh fish department and the salted and frozen seafood department.

The first is “the business start time.”

I woke up at 0:30 am and the business start time was 1 am when I was at the fresh fish department, but I woke up at 3:30 am and the business start time was 4 am at the salted and frozen seafood department.

It depends on commercial distribution and logistics and of course, the way of thinking is different between fresh fish and frozen products.

Needless to say, the most important thing for the fresh fish department is how fresh these fish are. It was clear that the main job was to sell out the fish that came that day.

However, the salted and frozen seafood department has a completely different idea.

For example, “Salmon are born in the river, go down the sea, they extend their area while they swim around the sea and come back to the river where they were born for spawning. Then we will catch some of them by a fixed net when they come close to the coast area.”

In other words, an ingredient of a grilled salmon breakfast set can be only caught from September to December.

For that reason, we stock a year’s worth of salmon and sell them in the season of highest demand.

“Stock is evil in the fresh fish apartment and Stock is good at the salted and frozen seafood department.” If you pay attention to this way of thinking, you can tell it is totally different, and I felt that there was still something for me to learn from this company that has such different personalities between each department.