A bluefin tuna weighing 524.7 pounds sold for a whopping $789,000 at an annual New Year’s auction Friday in Tokyo, Japan. At 114.24 million yen, it was the fourth-highest price paid for a bluefin at the auction since record-keeping began in 1999.
The fish was caught off the coast of Oma in the Aomori Prefecture in northeastern Japan, and was jointly purchased by wholesaler Yamayuki and the company that operates the Sushi Ginza Onodera restaurant, Kyodo News reported.
The priciest giant bluefin tuna sold at Tokyo’s biggest fish market on the first day of business in 2024 fetched $788,440, in an auction that has become a Japanese New Year’s tradition https://t.co/GYQQz1KdWL
— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) January 5, 2024
“I’d been feeling that the economy was getting better, so I thought the bidding would reach 100 million yen,” Yamayuki president Yukitaka Yamaguchi told Kyodo News.
“The decisive factor was the tuna’s freshness and vibrant color. We are thankful to the fishermen who braved the cold to catch it.”
Yamaguchi stated that they had mixed emotions about participating in the auction in light of the devastating earthquake that struck central Japan on New Year’s Day, “but we decided to go for it in the belief that we also need positive news.”
Besides the restaurant, the fish will be sold at food stores in Tokyo.
Last year, the top-selling bluefin tuna weighed 467 pounds and fetched $273,000. The auction record was a 612-pound bluefin tuna that sold for $3 million in 2019.
This year’s auction, a popular tourist attraction each year, was held at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market for the first time, the event having been moved from Tokyo’s main fish market in nearby Tsukiji.
Photo courtesy of Bloomberg Economics.