A bluefin tuna bought for 114.2 million Japanese yen, or almost $800,000, at Tokyo’s largest fish market is about to be served at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Japan.
The 525-pound fish, caught off of the coast of Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, fetched the fourth-highest value since information started in 1999, Bloomberg reported, citing Hiroki Matsushita, an official on the fish market.
Seafood wholesaler Yamayuki and sushi chain operator Onodera Group bought the tuna.
The prized tuna might be loved by diners on the Michelin-starred sushi restaurant Onodera in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district, reported The Japan Occasions.
“If we have been going to do it, we needed to win,” Yukitaka Yamaguchi, the president of Yamayuki, per Bloomberg.
Bluefin are the biggest tuna that roam the ocean depths and are constructed for velocity, with a torpedo form and retractable fins. In the event that they escape the fisherman’s nets and contours, they will stay as much as 40 years.
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP through Getty Photographs
The value additionally marks a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic ranges as sushi chains look to capitalize on returning prospects and rising tourism.
The variety of “customer arrivals” to Japan hit 2.52 million in October 2023, up from 2.5 million in October 2019, in accordance with the Japan Nationwide Tourism Group.
In November, Japan obtained round 185,000 guests from the US, up from about 149,000 in the identical month in 2019.
The world report value for a tuna was set in 2019, when the sushi tycoon and “Tuna King,” Kiyoshi Kimura, paid $3.1 million for a 612-pound fish.
“I purchased a superb tuna,” Kimura informed AFP on the time, per the BBC.
“The value was increased than initially thought, however I hope our prospects will eat this glorious tuna,” he added.
Derek Wilcox, a chef skilled in Japan and who labored there for 10 years, beforehand informed Enterprise Insider that bluefin tuna was “probably the most wanted.”
“Solely bluefin has the extraordinary marbling. Bluefin additionally, when it is aged correctly, has a selected stability of flavors,” he mentioned.
He added that tuna from Oma, which is within the Aomori Prefecture, is commonly thought of to be a few of the world’s best.
