a bluefin tuna sold for nearly 1.3 million euros at auction

A bluefin tuna sold for nearly 1.3 million euros in Japan on Sunday, during the traditional New Year’s tuna auction in Tokyo.

The prestigious sushi restaurant Onodera Group, starred by the Michelin guide, paid 207 million yen (around 1.28 million euros) for the 276 kilogram fish, caught in Oma in the province of Aomori (north). “The first tuna is believed to bring good fortune” Shinji Nagao, general manager of Onodera Food Service, told reporters after the auction. “Our wish is that people eat it and have a wonderful year”he added.

Last year, the restaurateur spent almost half as much (114 million yen) on the showpiece.

But the record sum remains that of 333.6 million yen (2.7 million euros at the time) for a 278 kilogram fish in 2019, paid by the self-proclaimed “king of tuna” Kiyoshi Kimura who has long reigned over this symbolic event in Japan.