International sushi chain pays more than $400K for 890-pound tuna

Price works out to nearly $1,000 a kilogram

The owner of a high-end chain of international sushi restaurants spent more than $400,000 (36.45 million yen) on a massive bluefin tuna at auction in Tokyo, Reuters reports.

The prime specimen weighs 405 kg (890 lb), making its price per kilogram nearly $1,000.

Hiroshi Onodera, owner of Ginza Onodera, made the largest successful bid at the New Year’s auction at Tsukiji fish market on January 5.

He reportedly plans to carve the premium Pacific bluefin tuna into 13,000 pieces of sushi.

Onodera owns 11 restaurants in seven cities, including spots in Shanghai, Paris and New York City (where a tasting menu can cost US$400 per person, according to Robb Report).

While $400,000 may seem like an impressively high price tag for a single fish, but it comes in well below 2013’s record $1.7 million (155 million yen), and is nearly half of last year’s highest bid of $790,560 (72 million yen).

“I’ve tried to win in the auction since last year, so I’m really happy,” Onodera told Reuters. “This is especially true because it’s the last year in Tsukiji.”

The famed 80-year-old market is relocating in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — this was the last New Year’s auction to take place at its original location.

As its high price indicates, bluefin tuna is highly prized at sushi restaurants worldwide. Jamie Gibbon of the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts warned in a statement that due to overfishing, the species “has been depleted by more than 97 per cent.”

“If countries continue to exceed their catch limits ... the very survival of the species will be threatened.”

TOMOHIRO OHSUMI / GETTY IMAGES Buyers inspect fresh bluefin tuna at the year’s first auction at Tsukiji market on Jan. 5 in Tokyo. Hiroshi Onodera, owner of Ginza Onodera, bid over $400,000 for one fish.