Photo/Illutration The bluefin tuna that fetched 207 million yen, the highest price at the first auction of the year at the Toyosu wholesale market in Tokyo on Jan. 5 (Wataru Sekita)

A bluefin tuna caught off northern Japan fetched 207 million yen ($1.31 million) in the inaugural auction of 2025 at Tokyo’s Toyosu wholesale fish market on Jan. 5.

It was the second-highest price paid for a single tuna in the year’s first auction since 1999.

“It was by far the freshest tuna on the block,” said Yukitaka Yamaguchi, president of Yamayuki Co., an intermediate wholesale company that put in the winning bid.

The 276-kilogram fish was caught off the coast of Oma in Aomori Prefecture.

The bell rang at 5:10 a.m. to mark the start of the auction in the capital’s Koto Ward.

As the auctioneer called out, intermediate wholesalers made bids with hand gestures.

Many large number of fish went under the hammer this year, and bid prices also rose.

Yamayuki placed the order on behalf of the operator of sushi restaurants under the Ginza Onodera brand, acquiring the most expensive tuna for the fifth consecutive year.

The highest-priced bluefin tuna at the first auction of the year was 333.6 million yen, set in 2019, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government, which has kept records since 1999.

Last year, the best specimen sold for 114.24 million yen.

“The situation remains harsh in disaster-hit areas on the Noto Peninsula,” Yamaguchi, 62, said, referring to the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the region on New Year’s Day last year. “We are glad if (the auction outcome) helps lighten up Japan.”

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