Bluefin tuna sells for record $3 million in a Tokyo fish auction: Report

A 613-pound bluefin tuna sold for more than $3 million at an action in Tokyo’s new fish market, setting a record, Reuters reports. The giant fish was purchased by Kiyoshi Kimura, who owns the Sushizanmai sushi restaurant chain.

“The tuna looks so tasty and very fresh, but I think I did too much,” Kimura reportedly said outside the market after his purchase. “I expected it would be between 30 million ($277,213) and 50 million yen ($462,022), or 60 million yen ($554,426) at the highest, but it ended up five times more,” he said, according to Reuters. 

The restaurateur had previously held the record for “”top price paid for a single fish at the new year’s auction” for six consecutive years years until 2017, when another restaurateur bested him. 

This year's record-setting sale marked the first New Year's auction at Tokyo's Toyosu marketplace, which opened after the Tsukiji fish market shuttered in 2018 to allow parking for the 2020 Olympic games, Reuters notes.