Onodera Group paid second highest price ever at prestigious annual new year auction at Tokyo’s main fish market
The top bidder at a Tokyo fish market has paid $1.3m for a tuna, the second highest price ever paid at an annual prestigious new year auction.
Michelin-starred sushi restaurateurs the Onodera Group said they had paid 207 million yen on Sunday for the 276 kilogram (608 pound) bluefin tuna, roughly the size and weight of a motorbike.
A bluefin tuna which fetched at 207 million yen (US$1,315,485) at the first auction of the year, is displayed at Toyosu market in Tokyo. Photograph: 植田千晶/AP
It is the second highest price paid at the opening auction of the year in Tokyo’s main fish market since comparable data started being collected in 1999.
The powerful buyers have now paid the top price for five years straight – winning bragging rights and a lucrative frenzy of media attention in Japan.
“The first tuna is something meant to bring in good fortune,” Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction. “Our wish is that people will eat this and have a wonderful year.”
The Onodera Group paid 114 million yen for the top tuna last year.
But the highest ever auction price was 333.6 million yen for a 278 kilogram bluefin in 2019, as the fish market was moved from its traditional Tsukiji area to a modern facility in nearby Toyosu.
The record bid was made by self-proclaimed “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura, who operates the Sushi Zanmai national restaurant chain.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the new year tunas commanded only a fraction of their usual top prices, as the public were discouraged from dining out and restaurants had limited operations.
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