Motorcycle-sized tuna sold to Tokyo sushi restaurants for $1.3 million

Sushi restaurant owners in Tokyo say they paid 207 million yen ($1.3 million; £1 million) for a bluefin tuna that is equivalent to the size and weight of a motorcycle.

The sale is the second-highest price ever paid at the annual New Year auction at the Japanese capital’s Toyosu fish market.

Onodera Group, whose bid was the winner, said the tuna – which weighed 276 kilograms (608 pounds) – would be served at its Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurant, as well as Nadamon restaurants around the country.

“The first tuna is supposed to bring good luck,” Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction, AFP news agency reported.

Mr Nagao said he hoped people would eat tuna fish caught from the Aomori region of northern Japan and “have a wonderful year”.

The group has paid the highest price at the Ichiban tuna auction for five consecutive years.

Last year, it paid 114 million yen for top tuna.

The highest auction price since comparable records began in 1999 was 333.6 million yen in 2019 for a 278 kg bluefin.

it was paid Self-proclaimed Japanese “Tuna King” and sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura.

Toyosu Fish Market, which opened in 1935, claims to be the world’s largest fish market, and is known for its daily early-morning tuna auctions.

But tuna wasn’t the only catch on Sunday, with Hokkaido sea urchins also fetching a record-breaking 7 million yen, according to the Japan Times.