The winning bid for the prized tuna during the predawn auction came from Kiyomura Corp, whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the famous Sushi Zanmai chain.
A massive 243 kilogram bluefina tuna fish made headlines in Tokyo on Monday after it was auctioned for a record $3.2 million (over Rs 28 crore) during the first auction of 2026 at Toyosu fish market in Japan.
The winning bid for the prized tuna during the predawn auction came from Kiyomura Corp, whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the famous Sushi Zanmai chain that has outlets across the country and abroad.
Kimura has won several auctions in the past and with a bid of $3.2 million on Monday for bluefina tuna fish, broke the earlier record of $2.1 million he set in 2019. Kimura is known to bid high for bluefina tuna fish during new year’s auction and is popularly known in the local arena as ‘Tuna King’.
“The year’s first tuna brings good luck,” said Kimura, who is the president of Sushi Zanmai, BBC reported. He said he was hoping to pay a bit less for the tuna but “the price shot up before you knew it.”
The 243-kg tuna fish was netted off the coast of Oma in northern Japan, a region popular for producing some of Japan’s finest tuna. Tuna fish costs $13,360 per kilogram in the Oma region, AP reported.
During the early morning auction, hundreds of tuna are sold on a daily basis in Japan but the prices of tuna fish from the Oma region remain significantly higher than usual, especially during the celebratory New Year auction.
“It’s in part for good luck. But when I see a good looking tuna, I cannot resist…I haven’t sampled it yet, but it’s got to be delicious,” Kimura said.
Last year, the first tuna was bought by Onodera Group, another food company that runs a sushi chain, for about $1.32 million.
(with inputs from AP)
