US$3.1mil for a giant tuna

Catch of the day: Kimura (right) showing off the prized bluefin tuna he had bought at the annual New Year auction while standing in front of his Sushi Zanmai restaurant in Tokyo.

TOKYO: A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record US$3.1mil (RM12.78mil) for a giant tuna at Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year, held its first pre-dawn New Year’s auction.

Bidding stopped at a whopping 333.6mil yen (RM12.78mil) for the enormous 278kg fish – an endangered species – that was caught off Japan’s northern coast.