
Tuna sells for $1.8M in first Tokyo auction of 2020 - hhs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-year-japan-tuna-auction/tuna-sells-for-1-8-million-in-first-tokyo-auction-of-2020-second-highest-ever-idUSKBN1Z4060
======
CodeArtisan
Kiyoshi Kimura wins the auction every years then sells the tuna at regular
price at his chain of restaurants (~200 yens per sushi). Who won the biggest
tuna of the first auction is said to receive good luck for the upcoming year.

~~~
Larrikin
Actually surprised its still news since he's been doing it so long and its
always him. Its just a publicity stunt for his restaurants at this point.

~~~
rootsudo
It's still a nice gesture.

------
ricardobeat
That's US$650 for 100g. ~$32 for one Nigiri, so more like $50-$80 at a
restaurant per piece, and only the belly meat fetches such high prices. Who on
earth eats this?

On a more serious note, won't the high price only encourage fisheries to
violate their quotas and drive Bluefin to extinction?

~~~
nneonneo
Plus, good restaurants want to serve fresh tuna so most of it would have to be
cut up and served that day. So the demand must be there, somehow.

Or, maybe this is an expensive marketing stunt. The guy who bought the big
tuna is the owner of a chain of moderately priced conveyor-belt sushi
restaurants; hard to imagine he’s pushing $60 nigiri through them. He does say
that he might’ve gone a bit over ([https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/asia/giant-
tuna-sets-record-a...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/asia/giant-tuna-sets-
record-at-japan-auction/index.html\);) he was expecting to pay $300-500K USD.

~~~
jacquesm
Paying 3-6 times as much as you intend to pay for something isn't 'a bit
over'. Impulse buy? Bidding war and unable to see clearly? Or simply so rich
that it doesn't matter?

~~~
ryankupyn
Possibly still a reasonable buy for him even at 3-6x what was expected if the
higher price generates enough extra press coverage.

~~~
ricardobeat
Haven't seen a single mention of his restaurant chain in the news though. The
CNN article even mentions a competitor restaurant, but not his!

~~~
Hydraulix989
Well TBF, the Reuters article mentions this one though.

------
lainga
I find it a real shame that they replaced Tsukiji. I found it very charming.
The new market is a bit sterile in comparison.

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
We spent a long layover in Tsukiji. Loved it! Had the best sushi of my life in
a literal hole in the wall at 2am. Very charming indeed.

~~~
tempsy
No offense but probably a placebo effect? Sushi is fine there but the
restaurants were always a bit of a tourist trap. Best sushi in the city is not
there.

~~~
mths
I won't argue where the "best" sushi is, but have you tried shutoku honten?
It's pretty great.

------
Ninn
It's amazing how this keeps generating something news worthy. As I understand
it it is entirely symbolic and not really something that carries the described
value?

~~~
larnmar
It keeps getting clicks, so they’ll keep writing it every year.

------
pvaldes
The worldwide pacific bluefin tuna population is extinct in a 97%. I hope they
choke with the last specimens alive in the planet.

Maybe is the cynical in me. Dunno, but is not possible even to try to save an
endangered species with this kind of publicitary stunts (that should be
illegallised many years ago IMHO. Is not much different than offering a
million dollars reward for the head of the last tiger). When the people
involved on those are presented almost as an hero, we are doomed to lose the
species forever.

We have exactly the same problem with Atlantic Salmon in Spain. Big money.
Everybody wants to cash the last one remaining, and they will do

------
pkaye
How does the buyer make any profit at such a price? Or is just some rich
person buying it for themselves?

~~~
Cpoll
> which translates into a price of about 700,000 yen per kilogram.

I imagine a piece of sashimi is about 1oz/30g, so you get 33 pieces per
kilogram.

700,000 / 33 = 21,212

Which is about $200 a piece.

I'll be more conservative and say a piece of sushi will only use 0.5oz of
fish, so we're down to $100 a piece...

Which does seem a bit unreasonable when you consider how many you need to sell
(a few people will pay $1000 for a set course, but not many...). I'm also not
taking into account that there's no way the entire fish can be sold at $200/oz
(bones, lower quality cuts, organs).

The only other factor I can think of is that you're getting a serious bit of
advertisement for your store/chain. I imagine a lot of people are going to
come to the buyer's restaurants to get to eat a bit of the second most
expensive tuna.

Am I doing the math wrong? I'd also love to get an expert's analysis.

~~~
dharmab
The purchaser is an executive at a large sushi chain- the purchase is for
marketing/media attention, not for direct profit.

