The boss of a Japanese sushi chain bought a 467-pound bluefin tuna for $632,000 at an auction Thursday, and that’s not even the most he has ever paid.
Kiyoshi Kimura, owner of Kiyomura Corp., bought the tasty fish at a price of $1,356 per pound, which works out to 74.2 million yen.
Kiyoshi Kimura, center left, looks at an employee cutting the fresh $632,000 bluefin tuna on January 5, 2017. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
Kimura, known as Japan’s “king of tuna,” also bought the world’s most expensive tuna ever in 2013 for $1.76 million. In fact, he has placed the winning bid for every bluefin tuna sold at the annual Tsukiji market fish auction for the past six years in a row.
Bluefin tuna is immensely popular around the world, and many environmental advocates say Japan is overfishing the species.
“This tuna is being fished at rates up to three times higher than scientists say is sustainable,” Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said in a 2016 report.
The Tsukiji market in Tokyo, Japan, was supposed to be relocated to make way for a road to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics complex, but the construction has been delayed, allowing the annual sushi tradition to continue for at least another year, Reuters reports.
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