A single tuna fetched a record 20.2 million yen Friday at the year's first auction at Tsukiji Uoichiba Co., Tokyo's biggest fish market for marine-product wholesalers, Tsukiji officials said.
The 202-kg bluefin tuna, caught in the Strait of Tsugaru off Aomori Prefecture, was purchased by a middleman who told reporters after the auction, "I just wanted to buy the highest quality tuna."
The record price for the bluefin, a fish that often ends up being consumed as sushi in Japanese restaurants, also translates into a record high per-kg price of 100,000 yen, the officials said.
The Friday auction, which kicked off at 4:50 a.m. with a chant by an auction leader and hand signaling by the middlemen, was the first this month and the first of the 21st century.
The fish, which arrived at the marine product division of the Tsukiji marketplace early Friday morning, totaled 2,459 tons, a notch above the first cargo that arrived for last year's first auction. The products included about 4,000 tuna.
The marketplace was awash with middlemen and several banners that read "Congratulations on the year's first arrivals."