The Onodera Group has once again won a bidding war for the top bluefin tuna sold during the 5 January auction at Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market.
The company paid JPY 207 million (USD 1.3 million, EUR 1.27 million) for the 608-pound tuna during Toyosu’s first auction of 2025, the second-highest price on record for the top tuna. The prized tuna at the first auction of the year is typically purchased for a highly inflated price as companies use the publicity generated as additional advertising.
Onodera Group won the top tuna in 2024 as well, paying JPY 114.24 million (then USD 787,342, EUR 720,740) for it. The company’s newest auction win is the fifth time in a row the company won the auction and the sixth time overall, as it also won the auction in 2018.
“Once again, we received tremendous cooperation from Yukitaka Yamaguchi, president of Toyosu wholesaler Yamayuki. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to him,” Onodera wrote in a press release.
The company said that the top tuna will be served across multiple restaurants in multiple countries, including its Sushi Ginza Onodera Main Branch, Sushi Ginza Onodera Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto, and its conveyer belt sushi restaurant Ginza Onodera in Kyoto.
The Onodera Group is centered around LEOC Co., which operates school meal services, and Ginza Onodera, which has 20 stores in three countries.
The only time the price went higher came in 2019, when the president of sushi chain Sushi Zanmai Kiyoshi Kimura spent JPY 333 million (then USD 3 million, EUR 2.6 million) for the top tuna, which weighed 612 pounds. At the time, Kimura said he regretted paying such a high price for the tuna but since that time has continued to get mentions in national media due to holding the record.
