If You Want to Know This Year's Japan Nikkei Index... Watch the Tuna Auction Market

First Tuna Auction of the Year Sold for 350 Million Won
Decline Since COVID-19... More Than Double Rebound This Year
Expectations for Japanese Consumer Sentiment and Dining Industry Revival

At the first tuna auction of the year held at Toyosu (豊洲), a seafood wholesale market in Tokyo, Japan, a 'Ichiban (best) tuna' was sold for over 300 million won.

According to Kyodo News and others on the 5th (local time), a 212kg Pacific bluefin tuna from Aomori (?森), Japan, was sold for the highest price of 36.04 million yen (approximately 350 million won). This price is more than 2.1 times the highest price of 16.88 million yen at last year’s first tuna auction, and is the sixth highest since records began in 1999. In 2019, a single tuna was sold for a record high of 333.6 million yen (approximately 3.3 billion won), but prices dropped significantly after COVID-19.

The 212kg tuna sold for 36.04 million yen (approximately 350 million won) at the Toyosu Market in Tokyo, Japan.
[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Toyosu Market is known as the "kitchen of Tokyo" in Japan. The New Year’s first tuna auction held here every January 5th is the biggest attraction and also an event that gauges the Japanese economy for the year. The tuna sold at the highest price in this auction is called the "Ichiban tuna," and large tuna sushi restaurants compete fiercely by bidding huge amounts to win it. There is a superstition that the restaurant that wins the "Ichiban tuna" will have good luck throughout the year, and it can also be used for promotional purposes.

The New Year tuna auction at Toyosu Market is also considered an indicator of Japan’s economic outlook. The higher the winning bid, the greater the expectation that dining-out consumption and household spending will increase during the year. However, during the pandemic, the "Ichiban tuna" at this auction recorded 20.84 million yen in 2021 and 16.88 million yen in 2022, reflecting the significant decline in restaurant industry sales after COVID-19. Nevertheless, with the highest price rising again this year amid expectations of an endemic, hopes for the revival of Japan’s dining industry are emerging.

This year’s tuna, sold for over 300 million won, weighed 212kg and was brought from Oma (大間) Port in Aomori Prefecture. This marks the 12th consecutive year that Oma tuna has been the highest-priced tuna. The winning bidder is the wholesale company Yamayuki (山幸), which supplies tuna to the sushi restaurant "Ginza Onodera," securing the "Ichiban tuna" for three consecutive years since 2021. Yukitaka Yamaguchi, who runs the company, said, “There have been many dark news stories so far, but I hope this will be positive news as the COVID-19 pandemic gradually eases.”