News New Year's auctions fetch new record bids

A bluefin tuna landed off Oma in Aomori Prefecture set a new record at the first auction of 2026, held early on 5 January at the Toyosu wholesale fish market in Koto Ward. The 243-kilogram fish fetched 510.3 million yen ($3.2 million), with the winning bid placed by Kiyomura, which runs the Sushizanmai chain. The price far exceeded the previous record of 333.6 million yen set in 2019. The result also marked Kiyomura's first win at the opening auction in six years. In recent years, the top tuna had been secured by intermediate wholesaler Yamayuki on behalf of the Onodera Group, which operates the high-end Ginza Onodera sushi restaurants.





Premium "Sato Nishiki" cherries from Yamagata Prefecture set new records at the year's first auctions on Monday. At a Tokyo market, a single box sold for 1.8 million yen ($11,500), putting the price at more than 26,000 yen per cherry. Another record was set at an auction in Tendō, a key production centre in Japan's leading cherry-growing region, where a box containing 68 cherries fetched 1.55 million yen.

Cherries typically reach their peak in early summer, but growers have pushed the season forward using so-called ultra-forced cultivation. The method involves chilling the trees to mimic winter conditions before transferring them to greenhouses, allowing harvesting to begin much earlier than usual.

An auction in the city of Tendō in Yamagata, Japan's main cherry-producing prefecture, also sold a 68-cherry box for a record 1.55 million yen. Cherries typically peak in early summer, but growers have advanced the harvest using "ultra-forced" cultivation, which chills trees to simulate winter before keeping them in greenhouses. Kenichi Mannen, deputy sales manager at JA Tendō Foods, which won the top bid in Tendō, said, "I heard management was tough this year due to unstable weather, and we want to work hard to deliver products that make customers happy."

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