When you go out to sea to fish you can have a bad, mediocre, good or exceptional day, as happened recently to Masahiro Takeuchi, a 73-year-old fisherman who in recent days has seen his name reproduced in newspapers and news broadcasts. half a planet The reason: a capture. A ‘super catch’, to be precise. Although Takeuchi is worried about how much strength he will have to dedicate himself to fishing, he has managed to arouse the admiration (and probably some envy) of his colleagues by catching a 276kg bluefin tuna, the size of a motorcycle.
Such measures would be enough to leave his professional colleagues stunned, but if Takeuchi has become famous it is for a different reason: his tuna has just sold for 1.3 million dollars in the most prestigious fish market in Japan.
A tuna like a chalet. Although it is grande Huge, the bluefin tuna caught by Mashiro Takeuchi is far from the size of a house. The value it has achieved in the market can, however, be measured with the Price of a well-located villa in most cities in Spain. Or even surpasses it. His catch, a piece weighing 276 kilos and the size of a motorcycle, as described by the international press, has been sold for 207 million yen, about 1.33 million dollars or 1.26 million euros.
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“I was fat as a cow”. This is how the veteran fisherman described it to the Kyodo agency on Sunday, recalling the moment he saw the gigantic bluefin tuna caught the previous morning with longline off the coast of Oma, in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori. “It’s like a dream. I always worry about how many more years I will be able to dedicate myself to this profession, but I feel incredibly happy,” he admitted to reporters. The merchandise ended up being auctioned on the 5th at the Toyosu fish market in Tokyo, one of the most prestigious in its sector in Japan.
Why is it special? 276 kilos are a lot of kilos, but the truth is that bluefin tuna can reach astonishing sizes. NOAA details that specimens from the Pacific measuring three meters long and weighing 450 kilos have been recorded, although it is normal for them to live an average of 15 years and adults are around 1.5 m and 60 kg. Some sources suggest that there are Atlantic bluefin tunas that reach 30 years of age and weigh considerably more.
If Takeuchi’s capture has been news in media such as Japan Timesla CNN y BBC o The Guardian It is, however, for another reason, even more enormous than its size: the price it has achieved at auction, a value that has been influenced by something more than its dimensions.
What matters… and where and when. The enormous piece was not auctioned anywhere. Not even a day of use. The 276 kilo bluefin tuna was part of the prestigious New Year’s auction and was held very early on Sunday morning – the auction started at 5.10 am – in the main fish market of the Japanese capital, which gave a extra interest to the entire process. Kyodo News and the France Press agency reported on him.
“The first tuna is something that brings good luck,” acknowledged the company that submitted the winning bid and was able to take the tuna home. “Our hope is that people eat it and have a wonderful year.” For now, the winner of the auction has achieved more than 276 kilos of fish: a visibility and fame available only to the best marketing campaigns.
And what company is it? An old acquaintance: Onodera Group, which already boasts of the achievement on its corporate website. The “old” thing is because this is not the first time that the company, owner of sushi restaurants highlighted by the Michelin guide and locations in Tokyo and Los Angeles, has managed to bring one of the most coveted pieces of each season to its kitchens. , the inaugural lot of the New Year’s bidding. Onodera has been paying the highest price for five years now.
Of course, in January 2024 it cost the company much less to become the winner: on that occasion it paid 114.2 million yen, $720,000, far from the 1.3 million it just put on the table. The group clarifies that the enormous (and million-dollar) tuna can be tried in many of its stores.
Impressive, but not record-breaking. Curiously, the fish awarded on Sunday for 1.3 million dollars is not the most expensive auctioned during the New Year’s event in the prestigious Japanese market.
This is at least stated by the Kyodo agency, which maintains that this honor remains unbeatable for a 278 kilo bluefin tuna that in 2019 reached a whopping 333.6 million yen, 2.1 million dollars at the current exchange rate. Its buyer: the “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura, behind the national restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai. That is the record at least since 1999, when data began to be collected.
Why is it important? Beyond the curiosity of how much Takeuchi’s capture weighed or for how much it was auctioned this Sunday, there are those who, like Kyodo itself, interpret the value of the bids in an economic key. For the agency, the amount for 2025, 1.8 times higher than that for 2024, “fuels hopes of continued economic recovery in Japan.”
After the record in 2019, prices fell with the arrival of the pandemic, leaving the 2021 bid at 20.8 million. In 2023 it was managed to rise to about 36 million, in 2024 it was 114.2 and this start of 2025 leaves a second record value in Toyosu.
Images | Onodera Group
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