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 fish auction in Tokyo, in what 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 bought 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 sushi chain operator Onodera Group.

Onodera Group has won the auction for five years in a row.

“The first tuna is meant to bring good luck,” company president Shinji Nagao told reporters at the market just after the auction. “Our hope is that by eating this tuna, everyone will have a good year.”

According to local media, the highest ever bid at the annual auction was 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million at the time) in 2019, a few months after the famous Tsukiji market moved to Toyosu. It was paid for by Kiyoshi Kimura, the head of another chain of sushi restaurants known as the “Tuna King” of Japan.

Prices then dropped in the following years as dining was restricted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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