Daily Tribune
KIYOSHI Kimura, president of Kiyomura Corp., the Tokyo-based operator of sushi restaurant chain Sushizanmai, displays a 243-kilogram bluefin tuna at his main restaurant in Tokyo on 5 January 2026, after the New Year’s auction at Toyosu fish market.
Photo courtesy of Yuichi YAMAZAKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record $3.2 million for a giant bluefin tuna Monday at an annual prestigious new year auction in Tokyo’s main fish market, smashing the previous all-time high.
Self-styled “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura’s sushi restaurant chain paid the top price for the 243-kilogram fish that was caught off Japan’s northern coast.
“I’d thought we would be able to buy a little cheaper, but the price soared before you knew it,” Kimura said after the pre-dawn auction at Tokyo’s main fish market.
“I was surprised at the price...I hope that by eating auspicious tuna, as many people as possible will feel energized,” he told reporters.
The 510.3 million yen price at the new year’s auction was the highest since comparable data started being collected in 1999.
The previous high was 333.6 million yen for a 278 kilogram bluefin in 2019, after the fish market moved from its traditional Tsukiji area in central Tokyo to a more modern facility.
