Motorbike-sized tuna sold to Tokyo sushi restaurateurs for $1.3m

Sushi restaurateurs in Tokyo say they have paid 207m yen ($1.3m; £1m) for a bluefin tuna which is about the size and weight of a motorbike.

The sale is the second highest price ever paid at the annual new year auction at Toyosu Fish Market in the Japanese capital.

Onodera Group, which had the winning bid, said the tuna – which weighs in at 276kg (608lb) – would be served at its Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants, as well as Nadaman restaurants across the country.

“The first tuna is something meant to bring in good fortune,” Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction, news agency AFP reported.

Mr Nagao added that he hoped people would eat the tuna – caught off the Aomori region in northern Japan – and “have a wonderful year”.

The group has paid the top price in the Ichiban Tuna auction for five years straight.

Last year, it forked out 114m yen for the top tuna.

The highest auction price since comparable records began in 1999 was 333.6m yen in 2019 for a 278kg bluefin.

It was paid by self-styled Japanese “Tuna King” and sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura.

Toyosu fish market, which opened in 1935, claims to be the biggest fish market in the world, and is known for pre-dawn daily tuna auctions.

But tuna was not the only catch on offer on Sunday, with Hokkaido sea urchins also fetching a record-breaking 7m yen according to the Japan Times.