Motorcycle-sized tuna fetches more than US$1M at Japan auction

A bluefin tuna about the size of a motorcycle has been sold for US$1.3 million (207 million yen) at Japan’s most prestigious fish market, setting the second highest price on record during its new year auction.

A bluefin tuna about the size of a motorcycle has been sold for US$1.3 million (207 million yen) at Japan’s most prestigious fish market, setting the second highest price on record during its new year auction.

Michelin-starred sushi restaurateurs Onodera Group claimed the 608-pound (276-kilogram) fish with its million-dollar bid at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market on January 5, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.

The bid marks the second highest price since the seafood wholesale market, considered the world’s largest, began to collect data in 1999, according to Kyodo. The highest bid on record is $3.1 million (333.6 million yen) for a 278-kilogram tuna in 2019.

Vendors from across the country put their best catches up for auction at the market most mornings of the week. But the prestigious new year auction carries a special meaning for bidders who converge to vie for the honor of claiming the first batch of the year.

“The year’s first tuna brings good luck. We want to make people smile with food,” said Shinji Nagao, the president of Sushi Onodera, cited by Kyodo.

The group is behind the Michelin-starred Sushi Ginza Onodera chain with eateries in Tokyo and Los Angeles.

It is the fifth consecutive year that the Onodera Group has paid the top price, having forked out over $720,000 (114.2 million yen) for a bluefin tuna at the auction last year, according to Sushi Ginza Onodera’s website.