Japan: Mr ‘Tuna King’ Buys One Fish for $1.8 Million

A celebrated Japanese sushi businessman, nicknamed ‘Tuna King’, has paid £1.4million for a giant tuna at a New Year’s auction at Tokyo’s main fish market today.

Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs a successful sushi restaurant chain, paid 193million yen to purchase a 608-pound (276kg) bluefin tuna, caught off the Aomori region in northern Japan.

The enormous tuna weigh more than an average pig, and almost twice as much as a reindeer.

‘This is the best,’ Kimura told reporters after the pre-dawn auction.

‘Yes, this is expensive, isn’t it? I want our customers to eat very tasty ones this year too,’ he said.

Kimura is the head of the company that runs sushi restaurant chain ‘Sushizanmai’.

Media-savvy Kimura regularly pays top price at the first auction of the year at the Japanese capital’s main fish market, making himself and his business a fixture in national news during this season.

In last year’s new year auction, Kimura paid a record £2.4million to win a 612-pound (278kg) tuna.

The traditional auction is now being held in a new market in an area called Toyosu.

The world-famous Tsukiji market, which had long served as a popular tourist attraction in an area packed with restaurants and shops, closed in 2018.