Tokyo (AFP)
A prominent Japanese businessman specializing in sushi and nicknamed "the king of tuna" paid 1.5 million euros on Sunday for a giant tuna at New Year's auction at Tokyo's main fish market.
Kiyoshi Kimura, owner of the Sushi Zanmai restaurant chain, paid 193 million yen (1.5 million euros) for this bluefin tuna weighing 276 kilograms and fished again this year off Aomori prefecture (north of Japan).
"This is the best," Kimura told reporters after the pre-dawn auction. "Yes, it's expensive, isn't it? I want our customers to eat very well this year again."
Mr. Kimura is a regular at records at the Tokyo fish market, which allows him to appear regularly in the media at this time of the year.
Last year, he paid a record 2.7 million euros for a 278 kg tuna. In 2013, he also paid a record price, more than twice lower, for a smaller tuna, 222 kg.
The traditional New Year auction has been taking place since last year in the new Toyosu market. Located in an outlying district, it replaced the picturesque Tsukiji market which was a tourist attraction near the center of the capital and closed in 2018.
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