This 525 Pound Bluefin Tuna Just Sold for Nearly $800,000 at Tokyo’s New Year’s Auction

In Japan, a large bluefin tuna was recently sold at Tokyo's biggest fish market for $788,440 or 114.2 million yen, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday. The opening day auction has become a new year tradition in the country. This year's 525-pound catch went to Yamayuki, a seafood wholesaler, and Onodera Group, a sushi restaurant chain. "If we were to go for it, we want to win," said Yukitaka Yamaguchi, President of Yamayuki, regarding the bidding. The price paid for the tuna was three times last year's final bid and is the fourth-highest since records began in 1999, Toyosu fish market official Hiroki Matsushita shared with Bloomberg. 

The prized catch, which was fished from the Aomori prefecture coastline, will be featured on the menu at the Michelin-starred Onodera located in Tokyo's Ginza district. Over the past four years, the Onodera Group has consistently secured winning bids at the market auction. However, this year, their spend surpassed all previous sums during the pandemic. Despite the bluefin's considerable price tag of almost $800,000 for this year, it pales in comparison with the all-time record of $3.1 million, an amount awarded to sushi restaurant group Kiyomura in 2019. 

The bidding price this year may reflect Japan’s bounce-back from the pandemic's harsh blow. With pandemic-related restraints removed, both locals and tourists have started thronging the country's eateries. Visitor numbers are now matching pre-pandemic figures, with tourist arrivals exceeding 2 million each month for the past six months, according to the National Tourism Organization of Japan. Thus, many people may be drawn to Onodera in hope of tasting the auspicious bluefin tuna in the new year. However, fans of Japanese cuisine in the US are likely to be disappointed, as the Onodera Group’s New York facility has closed its doors, leaving only its venues in Los Angeles and Hawaii operational.