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Tokyo fish market breaks New Year auction record as single fish sells for over 500 million yen【Vid】

Casey Baseel Jan 6, 2026
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Casual sushi restaurant chain spends big on Toyosu Market’s first day of 2026.

In Japan, there’s a special significance attached to many firsts of the year. People often think that the first dream they have while sleeping in the new year is a portent of their fortune to come over the next 12 months, and many people make a point of choosing something unique or symbolic for their first purchase in January.

Then there’s the social phenomenon of ichiban maguro, or the “number-one tuna.” Like many businesses in Japan, Tokyo’s Toyosu Market, the world’s largest wholesale fish market, is closed for the first few days of the year. The ichiban maguro is the tuna that sells for the highest price at auction on the first day the market reopens in January.

Up until now, the highest price paid for an ichiban maguro was 333.6 million yen (US$2.18 million), in 2019. Prices plummeted during the pandemic but began climbing back up in 2023, and on Monday the top tuna of 2026’s opening day was auctioned off for an eye-watering sum of 510.3 million yen (US$3.33 million).

▼ This year’s ichiban maguro being cut in preparation for its transformation into pieces of sushi.

As can see in the above video, it’s a massive fish, Caught in the waters off the Oma area of Aomori Prefecture, famed for being the spot with the tastiest tuna in Japan, the 243-kilogram (535.7-pound) fish was landed on January 4 by 60-year-old Toyokazu Ito, who’s been a professions fisherman since the age of 15. The price of this year’s ichiban maguro works out to 2.1 million yen per kilogram (roughly US$6,364 a pound), a sizable increase from last year’s ichiban maguro price of 750,000 yen per kilogram.

Though it wasn’t the largest tuna being auctioned in Tokyo that day (that distinction went to a 345-kilogram specimen), Ito’s fish was considered by bidders to be of higher quality. Based on an examination of the cross section of its tail, buyers deduced that it would have both a high amount of succulent fat and that its lean portions, known as akami in Japanese, would have an enticingly beautiful color, which usually denotes a tender texture and purity of flavor.

The winning bid for the ichiban maguro came from Kiyomura Corporation, the company that manages the Sushi Zanmai chain of casual sushi restaurants. Kiyomura broke its own record for the highest price ever paid for a tuna on opening day, as the company was also the purchaser of the 2019 ichibanmaguro. 2026 is the company’s first time to come away with the winning bid since 2020, but despite the prestige power of its purchase, Kiyomura says that it plans to sell the sushi made from this year’s ichiban maguro at the same price that it usually charges for its tuna sushi, with no additional markup.

Sources: Teleasa News, Toyosu Market
Top image: Pakutaso
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