Motorbike-Sized Tuna Sold for $1.3M in Tokyo’s New Year Auction
A massive bluefin tuna, weighing 276kg (608lb) and about the size of a motorbike, was sold for a staggering $1.3 million (207 million yen) at Tokyo’s annual New Year auction. The event took place at the Toyosu Fish Market, known for its early morning tuna auctions, and marked the second-highest price ever recorded in the market’s history.
The prized fish was bought by the Onodera Group, a renowned name in fine dining, and will be served at their Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants as well as Nadaman outlets across Japan. Shinji Nagao, an Onodera representative, expressed hope that customers enjoying the tuna would be blessed with a prosperous year ahead.
The bluefin tuna was caught off Japan’s northern Aomori region, an area celebrated for its premium-quality fish. The New Year auction, also called the ‘Ichiban Tuna’ event, holds cultural significance in Japan, symbolizing good fortune and success for the year to come.
This marks the fifth consecutive year that the Onodera Group has secured the top bid at the prestigious auction. Last year, the group paid 114 million yen for the most prized tuna. However, the record remains unbroken since 2019 when self-proclaimed “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura paid a jaw-dropping 333.6 million yen for a slightly larger bluefin tuna.
Toyosu Fish Market, one of the largest seafood markets in the world, is renowned for its vibrant pre-dawn tuna auctions, attracting global attention every year. Alongside the prized tuna, this year’s auction also saw record-breaking bids for Hokkaido sea urchins, which sold for 7 million yen.
The sale of the colossal tuna not only highlights Japan’s deep-rooted cultural connection to seafood but also underscores the prestige and economic significance of the annual auction at Toyosu Market.
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