The first tuna auction of the New Year at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market on 5 January 2024 saw seafood wholesaler Yamayuki and sushi chain Onodera Group pay over JPY 114.2 million – around US$791,665 – for a mammoth 238kg bluefin tuna.
The prized fish was caught off the coast of Aomori Prefecture.
2024’s tuna achieved the fourth-highest sales price since records began in 1999. However, it was the highest price paid for a tuna at the fish market since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also sold for more than triple the price of the most expensive fish sold at 2023’s first-of-the-year auction.
It’s the fourth year in a row that Yamayuki and Onodera have landed the winning bid for the market’s priciest fish of the new season, and they confirmed it will be served at 12 Ginza Onodera stores in two countries, including Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera Kyoto branch, which opened in July last year, as well as at an affiliated nursing home.
Onodera also advised that a portion of the sales of the tuna will be donated to response efforts for the Noto Peninsula Earthquake that occurred on 1 January.
