Record $3.1 M paid in New Year’s tuna auction at Japan’s new market

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record $3.1 million for a giant tuna Saturday as Tokyo's new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year, held its first pre-dawn New Year's auction.

Bidding stopped at a whopping 333.6 million yen for the enormous 278-kilogram (612-pound) fish – an endangered species – that was caught off Japan's northern coast.

Self-styled ''Tuna King'' Kiyoshi Kimura paid the top price, which doubled the previous record of 155 million yen also paid by him in 2013.

''It's the best tuna. I was able to buy a delicious, super fresh tuna,'' the sushi restaurant chain owner proudly told reporters.

''The price was higher than originally thought, but I hope our customers will eat this excellent tuna,'' Kimura said after the auction.

Tsukiji – the world's biggest fish market and a popular tourist attraction in an area packed with restaurants and shops – moved in October to Toyosu, a former gas plant a bit further east.

Opened in 1935, Tsukiji was best known for its pre-dawn daily auctions of tuna, caught from all corners of the world, for use by everyone from top Michelin-star sushi chefs to ordinary grocery stores.

Especially at the first auction of the new year, wholesalers and sushi tycoons have been known to pay eyewatering prices for the biggest and best fish.

Despite the relocation, the auction ritual remained intact: Before dawn, buyers in rubber boots were inspecting the quality of the giant fresh and frozen tunas by examining the neatly cut tail end with flashlights and rubbing slices between their fingers.

At 5:10 a.m., handbells rang to signal the auction was underway and the air filled with the sound of auctioneers yelling prices at buyers, who raised fingers to indicate interest.

In a roar of wholesalers surrounding the day's best tuna, an auctioneer hammered the top price as the Kimura side outbid his rival wholesaler in a thrilling head-to-head battle.

Japan consumers a large portion of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as ''kuro maguro'' (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs as the ''black diamond'' because of its scarcity.