Fantastic, Motorcycle-sized Tuna Fish Sold For IDR 21 Billion

Tuna as big as a motorbike (BBC)

JAKARTA - A bluefin tuna weighing 276 kilograms, which is the size of a motorbike, sold for 207 million yen or around Rp. 21 billion in a New Year's auction at Toyosu Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan. This sale recorded the second highest price in the history of the annual auction.

Reported by VOI from the BBC website on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, the tuna was purchased by the Onodera Group, which will serve it at Michelin-star Ginza Onodera restaurants and Nadaman restaurants spread across Japan.

"The first child in the new year is believed to be lucky," said Shinji Nagao, Onodera's representative, to reporters, as quoted by AFP.

Nagao hopes that customers who enjoy tuna will have a happy year.

Tuna ini ditangkap di perairan Aomori, Jepang utara, yang dikenal sebagai salah satu wilayah penghasil tuna berkualitas tinggi. Grup Onodera telah memenangkan lelang Ichiban Tuna selama lima tahun berturut-turut. Tahun lalu, mereka membayar 114 juta yen atau Rp11 miliar untuk tuna terbaik.

The record high price in the auction history occurred in 2019, when a 288 kilogram bluefin tuna sold for 333.6 million yen. The tuna was bought by Kiyoshi Kimura, the owner of a famousfous restaurant dubbed Japan's 'Cash King'.

The Toyosu Fish Market, which is the largest fish market in the world, is famous for its tuna auction which is held every morning. However, tuna is not the only expensive catch in this year's auction. The sea subsidence from Hokkaido also set a record price of 7 million yen or IDR 717 million rupiah, according to a Japan Times report.