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A bulky bluefin tuna caused a stir at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market on Monday morning, fetching a record 510.3 million yen ($3.2 million; £2.4 million) in the market’s first auction of the year.
The winning bid for the 243kg fish came from Kiyomura Corp, the operator of the popular sushi chain Sushi Zanmai, which has outlets across the country and abroad.
“The first tuna of the year brings good luck,” said Kiyoshi Kimura, the company’s president and a familiar figure at the annual New Year’s auction, Kyodo reported.
Mr. Kimura, nicknamed the Tuna King, is known for bidding high on bluefin tuna at New Year’s auctions.
The entrepreneur told reporters after the auction that he was “surprised by the price”, AFP reported.
“I thought we could buy a little cheaper, but the price went up before you knew it,” he said.
Mr. Kimura paid 56.5 million yen for a bluefin tuna in 2012 and 155 million yen in 2013 – setting record prices every time.
In 2019 he bought a bluefin tuna for 333.6 million yen ($2.1 million; £1.6 million) – another historic price.
Despite telling reporters at the time that he thought he had “done too much”, Mr Kimura has now broken his own record again.
At the first auction at Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market, fish usually sell for exorbitant prices.
Last yearthe first tuna to be auctioned was purchased for 207 million yen by Onodera Group, another food company that owns a sushi chain. He said the fish would be served in his restaurants across the country.
The frenetic energy at fish markets during these pre-dawn auctions has become a popular tourist attraction in Tokyo. Monday’s auction, which started around 05:00 local time (20:00 GMT), was no exception.
The million-dollar tuna was sliced for customers at Kimura’s sushi restaurants shortly after it was auctioned.
“I feel like I’ve had a good start to the year after eating something so auspicious at the start of the year,” one of Mr. Kimura’s restaurant customers told AFP.
