Sushi chain pays $1.3 million for motorcycle-sized tuna at Tokyo auction

TOKYO — A bluefin tuna sold for more than $1.3 million at an annual auction in Tokyo, which organizers said was the second highest bid since the event began in 1999.

The 608-pound bluefin tuna, which is about the size and weight of a motorcycle, was purchased for 207 million yen ($1,316,835) at the New Year’s auction at Toyosu Market, Tokyo’s main fish market, by seafood wholesaler Yamayuki and Michelin. -starred operator of the Onodera Group sushi chain.

The two companies have won the auctions for five years in a row.

“The first tuna is believed to bring good fortune,” Shinji Nagao, chairman of Onodera Group, told reporters at the market just after the auction. “We hope that by eating this tuna, everyone will have a happy new year.”

According to local media, the highest bid ever at this annual auction was 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million at the time) in 2019, a few months after the famous move Tsukiji Market in Toyosu. He was paid by Kiyoshi Kimura, chef of another sushi restaurant chain, known as Japan’s “tuna king.”

Prices then fell in subsequent years as restaurants were restricted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo and Kim Gu from Hong Kong.