A bluefin tuna has been sold for a record 56.49 million yen ($736,000) at the first auction of the year at Tokyo''s Tsukiji fish market.
The fished weighed 269kg, which translates to 210,000 yen per kg, or $1,238 per pound Yutaka Hasegawa, a Tsukiji market official, told Associated Press. This tuna beat last year's record of 32.49 million yen.
The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said he wanted to give Japan a boost after last year's devastating tsunami.
"Japan has been through a lot the last year due to the disaster," he told AP Television News. "Japan needs to hang in there. So I tried hard myself and ended up buying the most expensive one."
He said he wanted to keep the fish in Japan, rather than let it get taken overseas.
This year's record tuna was caught off Oma, in Aomori prefecture and just north of the tsunami-battered coast.
A Sushi-Zanmai shop in Tsujiki was selling fatty tuna sushi from the prized fish for 418 yen ($5.45) apiece on Thursday – when, if sold at cost, each piece of sushi could cost as much as 8,000 yen ($96).
