Motorbike-sized tuna sold to Tokyo sushi restaurateurs for $1.3m

Sushi restaurateurs in Tokyo declare they have paid 207m yen ($1.3m; £1m) for a bluefin tuna which is about the size and weight of a motorbike.

The sale is the second highest worth ever paid at the annual recent year auction at Toyosu Fish economy in the Japanese fund.

Onodera throng, which had the winning bid, said the tuna – which weighs in at 276kg (608lb) – would be served at its Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants, as well as Nadaman restaurants across the country.

“The first tuna is something meant to bring in excellent fortune,” Onodera official Shinji Nagao told reporters after the auction, information agency AFP reported.

Mr Nagao added that he hoped people would eat the tuna – caught off the Aomori region in northern Japan – and “have a wonderful year”.

The throng has paid the top worth in the Ichiban Tuna auction for five years straight.

Last year, it forked out 114m yen for the top tuna.

The highest auction worth since comparable records began in 1999 was 333.6m yen in 2019 for a 278kg bluefin.

It was paid by self-styled Japanese “Tuna King” and sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura.

Toyosu fish economy, which opened in 1935, claims to be the biggest fish economy in the globe, and is known for pre-dawn daily tuna auctions.

But tuna was not the only catch on propose on Sunday, with Hokkaido sea urchins also fetching a record-breaking 7m yen according to the Japan Times.