A tuna the size of a motorcycle has been sold to a Tokyo sushi restaurant for $1.3 million

Sushi restaurateurs in Tokyo say they paid ¥207m ($1.3m; £1m) for a bluefin tuna the size and weight of a motorbike.

The sale is the second-highest price ever paid at the annual New Year’s auction at Toyosu Fish Market in the Japanese capital.

Onodera Group, which won the bid, said the tuna – which weighs 276kg (608lbs) – will be served at its Michelin-starred Ginza Onodera restaurants as well as Nadaman restaurants nationwide.

“The first tuna is what brings success,” Onodera official Shinji Nagaa told reporters after the auction, according to AFP.

Mr Nagaa added that he hoped people would eat the tuna – caught in the Aomori region in northern Japan – and “have a wonderful year”.

The group paid the highest price at the Ichiban Tuna auction for five consecutive years.

Last year, he shelled out 114 million yen for the best tuna.

The highest auction price since comparative records began in 1999 was ¥333.6 million in 2019 for a 278-kilogram blue onion.

It was paid for Japan’s self-proclaimed “Tuna King” and sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura.

Toyosu Fish Market, which opened in 1935, claims to be the largest fish market in the world and is famous for its daily pre-dawn tuna auctions.

But tuna wasn’t the only catch on offer on Sunday, with Hokkaido sea urchins also fetching a record 7 million yen, the Japan Times reported.