A 608-pound bluefin tuna sold for $1.3 million (207 million yen) at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market on Sunday, making it the second-most expensive tuna sold at Japan’s premiere wholesale fish markets since record-keeping began in 1999.
The Onodera Group, which owns the Michelin-starred Sushi Ginza Onodera chain, purchased the motorcycle-sized fish – which is thought to carry auspicious omens for the new year.
“The year’s first tuna brings good luck. We want to make people smile with food,” Sushi Onodera president Shinji Nagao told the Japanese outlet Kyodo News. This is the fifth consecutive year that Onodera purchased the most expensive fish. “Our hope is that by eating this tuna everyone will have a good year.”
Sushi Ginza Onodera operates 20 restaurants across Japan, the United States, and China, according to their website. The group’s restaurants have been honored with 15 Michelin stars.
The priciest New Year’s catch ever sold at the Tokyo market was a bluefin tuna that went for $3.1 million (333.6 million yen) in 2019, shortly after the market moved from its original location in Tsukiji.
In the ensuing years, however, prices dropped off in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, the Onodera group paid $720,000 (114.2 million yen) for the first fish of the year, according to CNN.
Fisherman Masahiro Takeuchi also celebrated his whopping catch, which he said was “as fat as a cow.” Takeuchi reeled in the fish off the coast of Oma, a small town in northeastern Japan.
“It’s like a dream,” the 73-year old told Japanese reporters. “I’m always worried about how many more years I can do this job, but I’m incredibly happy.”
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