Japan’s prestigious sushi restaurant chain Onodera Group, which has Michelin stars, paid 207 million yen ($1.34 million) for a 276-kilogram (600-pound) tuna.
The restaurant owner paid about half that amount (114 million yen) last year for a similar fish.
The bluefin tuna, caught off northern Japan, was sold Sunday at a traditional New Year’s tuna auction in Tokyo.
“The first tuna is supposed to bring good luck,” Shinji Nagao, general manager of Onodera Food Services, told reporters after the auction.
“We hope people will eat it and have a great year,” he added.
But the record sum dates back to 2019, when Kiyoshi Kimura, the self-proclaimed “tuna king,” paid 333.6 million yen ($2.8 million at the time) for a 278-kilogram fish.
