Sushi restaurant owners in Tokyo say they paid 207 million yen ($1.3 million; £1 million) for a bluefin tuna, which is the size and weight of a motorcycle.
This is the second highest price ever paid at the annual New Year's auction at the Toyosu Fish Market in the Japanese capital.
Onodera Group, which submitted the winning bid, said the tuna – weighing 276 kilograms – will be served at Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants, as well as Nadaman restaurants across the country.
“The first tuna is something intended to bring good luck,” Shinji Nagao, an official at Onodera, told reporters after the auction, Agence France-Presse reported.
Nagao added that he hopes people will eat the tuna – caught off the Aomori region in northern Japan – and “have a great year.”
The group has paid the top price at the Ichiban Tuna auction for five consecutive years.
Last year, she spent 114 million yen to buy the best tuna.
The highest auction price since similar records began in 1999 was 333.6 million yen in 2019 for a 278-kg bluefin fish.
Paid by Self-proclaimed Japanese “Tuna King” and sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura.
Toyosu Fish Market, which opened in 1935, is the largest fish market in the world and is famous for its daily pre-dawn tuna auctions.
But tuna wasn't the only catch on offer Sunday, as sea urchins in Hokkaido also fetched a record 7 million yen, according to the Japan Times.
