A bluefin tuna weighing 128.4 kg fetched an eight-year high of ¥9.63 million Monday during the first auction of the year at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
The price for the tuna, caught off Oma, Aomori Prefecture, was the highest since 2001, when the all-time record of ¥20.2 million was logged for a tuna caught in the same waters.
"A choppy, wintry sea late last year caused a drop in shipments from Oma, so buyers vied to bid up prices," a Tsukiji dealer said.
Tuna caught in the coastal city on the northern tip of the prefecture are considered gourmet quality.
The buyer, a Hong Kong sushi bar owner, purchased the premium fish in cooperation with an upscale sushi restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. The Hong Kong restaurateur also paid the highest price at last year's first auction at Tsukiji.
There was a wide array of some 730 fresh tuna shipped from both home and abroad.
Many countries are now reducing their tuna catch due partly to catch controls.
In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to cut the Atlantic bluefin tuna catch quota for 2009 by about 20 percent from the 2008 level to 22,000 tons, setting Japan's fishing quota at 1,870 tons for 2009, down from 2,345 tons for 2008. Japan's quota for 2010 is 1,697 tons.
"It doesn't mean that we will completely run out of stock, because there are sufficient inventories of frozen tuna and domestic farming of premium bluefin tuna is expected to increase," a market participant said.
