Fish as big and heavy as motorbike sold for Rs 11 crore in Tokyo market

A bluefin tuna from Oma, Aomori Prefecture, which was purchased earlier in the day for about Rs 11 crore, is presented to the media following the first tuna auction of the New Year at Tokyo's Toyosu Market on January 5. (Image credit: AFP)

The top bidder at a Tokyo fish market said they paid $1.3 million for a tuna on Sunday, the second highest price ever paid at an annual prestigious new year auction.

Michelin-starred sushi restauranteurs, the Onodera Group, said they paid 207 million yen (about Rs 11 crore) for the 276 kilogram bluefin tuna, roughly the size and weight of a motorbike. The bluefin tuna is famous for its speed, its ability to dive deep into the oceans and for its ability to live up to 40 years.

This sale is the second-highest price paid at the opening auction of the year in Tokyo's main fish market since comparable data started being collected in 1999.

The powerful buyers have now paid the top price for five years straight -- winning bragging rights and a lucrative frenzy of media attention in Japan.

"The first tuna is something meant to bring in good fortune," Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction. "Our wish is that people will eat this and have a wonderful year."

The Onodera Group paid 114 million yen for the top tuna last year.

But the highest ever auction price was 333.6 million yen for a 278-kilogram bluefin in 2019, as the fish market was moved from its traditional Tsukiji area to a modern facility in nearby Toyosu.

The record bid was made by self-proclaimed "Tuna King" Kiyoshi Kimura, who operates the Sushi Zanmai national restaurant chain.

Pakistani fisherman becomes overnight millionaire after selling rare fishIn a similar news, in 2023, a fisherman in Pakistan's Karachi city became a millionaire overnight after auctioning a haul of rare fish which has many medicinal properties. Haji Baloch, who lives in the impoverished Ibrahim Hyderi fishing village, and his workers caught the fish known as golden fish or Sowa in the local dialect from the Arabian Sea.

The Sowa fish is considered priceless and rare since substances from its belly are said to have great healing and medicinal properties. A thread-like substance from the fish is also used in surgical procedures.

(With inputs from AFP)