05 Jan 2019; DW: The quarter-ton bluefin tuna sold for more than double the previous record. The buyer was a Japanese sushi entrepreneur who calls himself the "Tuna King."
A 278-kilogram (610-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million, €2.7 million) in the first auction of Japan's new Toyosu market.
The fish, valued at 1.2 million yen per kilogram, was caught off the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. The buyer was Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the Sushi Zanmai restaurant chain.
The price was more than double the previous record of 155 million yen, which Kimura paid at the Tsukiji auction in 2013. He bought the most expensive tuna at the first auction of the year from 2012 to 2017.
"I bought a good tuna," said the self-styled "Tuna King" Kimura. "The price was higher than I originally thought, but I hope our customers will eat this excellent tuna."
The Toyosu fish market opened in October after the famed Tsukiji market closed after 83 years of business. Tsukiji was one of Japan's top tourist attractions and was used by top sushi chefs and ordinary grocery stores alike. The first auction of the year attracted big fish spenders who would pay top dollar of the biggest and best fish.
Japan is the biggest consumer of the torpedo-shaped bluefin tuna and the national and international demand for the fish has lead to overfishing of the species. Experts have warned of its extinction as stocks of the Pacific bluefin dropped by 96 percent of pre-industrial levels.
