$800,000 tuna to be turned into sushi at Michelin-starred restaurant

Bluefin tuna.

Jonathan Borg/Xinhua via Getty Images

• A tuna sold for 114.2 million Japanese yen, or nearly $800,000, at Tokyo's largest fish market.
• The 525-pound fish fetched the fourth-highest price since records began, Bloomberg reported.
• It's due to be served at the Michelin-starred Onodera restaurant in Tokyo, Japan.

A bluefin tuna sold for 114.2 million Japanese yen, or nearly $800,000, at Tokyo's largest fish market is set 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 price since records began in 1999, Bloomberg reported, citing Hiroki Matsushita, an official at the fish market.

Seafood wholesaler Yamayuki and sushi chain operator Onodera Group purchased the tuna.

The prized tuna will be enjoyed by diners at the Michelin-starred sushi restaurant Onodera in Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district, reported The Japan Times.

"If we were going to do it, we wanted to win," Yukitaka Yamaguchi, the president of Yamayuki, per Bloomberg.

Bluefin are the largest tuna that roam the ocean depths and are built for speed, with a torpedo shape and retractable fins. If they escape the fisherman's nets and lines, they can live up to 40 years.

Media crowd around as a 524 pound bluefin tuna - which was purchased earlier in the day for $788,440 at the first tuna auction of the New Year in Tokyo on January 5, 2024.

RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images

The price also marks a return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels as sushi chains look to capitalize on returning customers and rising tourism.

The number of "visitor arrivals" to Japan hit 2.52 million in October 2023, up from 2.5 million in October 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

In November, Japan received around 185,000 visitors from the US, up from about 149,000 in the same month in 2019.

The world record price 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 bought a good tuna," Kimura told AFP at the time, per the BBC.

"The price was higher than originally thought, but I hope our customers will eat this excellent tuna," he added.

Derek Wilcox, a chef trained in Japan and who worked there for 10 years, previously told Business Insider that bluefin tuna was "the most sought after."

"Only bluefin has the intense marbling. Bluefin also, when it's aged properly, has a particular balance of flavors," he said.

He added that tuna from Oma, which is in the Aomori Prefecture, is often considered to be some of the world's finest.

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