Number 4: Big price for first bluefin tuna of 2024 augurs well for Japan’s restaurant sector
This year’s fourth most read story on SeafoodSource occurred just five days into the year when the first tuna auction of the new year at Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market saw the prize bluefin tuna of the day sell for JPY 114.24 million (then USD 787,342, EUR 720,740).
Intermediate wholesaler Yamayuki and the operator of the Sushi Ginza Onodera restaurant – both based in Tokyo jointly bid on the 238-kilogram bluefin tuna at the 5 January auction – the fourth year in a row the two snagged the bragging rights that go along with the top purchase.
Typically, the top tuna of the first auction of the year is subject to a bidding war as companies look to gain publicity from the large sum. The top price paid ever occurred in 2019 when Kiyoshi Kimura, president of restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai, spent JPY 333 million (then USD 3 million, EUR 2.6 million) for a single tuna – a price Kimura told interviewers he regretted paying.
The price represents the fourth-highest price ever paid for a bluefin tuna and was seen as a sign that there was renewed confidence in the economic recovery of Japan’s hospitality industry.
