Massive tuna sells for $1.3M at Japan auction
Massive tuna was bought during Toyosu Market's first auction of 2025
A company spent seven figures to acquire a massive tuna during an auction held at a Japanese fish market in Tokyo over the weekend.
The 600-plus-pound tuna went to Onodera Group, a Japanese company that runs sushi restaurants and businesses in other sectors, according to a translated press release.
A staggering $1.3 million (207 million yen) bid landed the company the massive bluefin tuna.
A bluefin tuna from Oma, Aomori Prefecture, which was purchased earlier in the day for $1.3 million, is presented to the media following the first tuna auction of the New Year at Tokyo's Toyosu Market on Jan. 5, 2025. (STR/Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The seven-figure sale was part of Toyosu Market’s first tuna auction of 2025, Onodera Group said in the press release. It was held on Sunday.
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The Japan National Tourism Organization called Toyosu Market the "biggest fish market in the world." People sell tuna and other seafood there, as well as fruits and vegetables.
Onodera Group said it has scored the first tuna five years in a row. It also did so in 2018, according to the company’s press release.
Over the past 26 years, the market has only seen one other New Year’s tuna go for a higher price than this year’s $1.3 million, AFP reported. That fish, sold in 2019, reportedly cost 333.6 million yen.
Buyers during the first tuna auction of the year at Toyosu Market in Tokyo on Jan. 5, 2025. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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"The first tuna is something meant to bring in good fortune. Our wish is that people will eat this and have a wonderful year," Onodera’s Shinji Nagao said over the weekend, according to AFP.
Thirteen of the company’s Ginza Onodera sushi restaurants will dish up meat from the $1.3 million tuna, according to Onodera Group. Multiple Ginza Onodera locations have received Michelin stars over the years.