Sushi restaurateurs in Tokyo say they paid 207 million yen ($1.3 million; £1 million) for a bluefin tuna that is about the size and weight of a motorcycle.
The sale is the second highest price ever paid at the annual New Year’s auction at Toyosu Fish Market in the Japanese capital.
Onodera Group, which had the winning bid, said the tuna – which weighs 276 kg (608 lb) – will be served at its Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants, as well as Nadaman restaurants nationwide.
“The first tuna is something that should bring good luck,” Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction, AFP news agency reported.
Mr Nagao added that he hoped people would eat the tuna – caught in the Aomori region of northern Japan – and “have a wonderful year”.
The group has paid the highest price at the Ichiban tuna auction for five consecutive years.
Last year, he allocated 114 million yen for premium tuna.
The highest auction price since comparable records began in 1999 was ¥333.6 million in 2019 for a 278 kg bluefin.
It was paid from the self-proclaimed Japanese “King of Tuna” and owner of a sushi restaurant Kiyoshi Kimura.
Toyosu Fish Market, opened in 1935, claims to be the largest fish market in the world, and is famous for its daily pre-dawn tuna auctions.
But tuna wasn’t the only catch on offer on Sunday, with Hokkaido sea urchins also fetching a record 7 million yen according to the Japan Times.
