Japan's 'eye-popping' $736,000 bluefin tuna: By the numbers

Call it sushi philanthropy: At 2012's inaugural tuna auction in Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market, Japanese sushi magnate Kiyoshi Kimura paid an "eye-popping" $736,000 for a giant bluefish tuna — then sold it to his disaster-ravaged compatriots at a steep loss. "It is not just about the money," said Hiroshi Umehara, a spokesman for Kimura's Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain. "It is also about the Japanese spirit." After a year of earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns, and economic contraction, "Japan needs to hang in there," Kimura added. Here's a look at this very expensive, patriotic "boost of umami morale," by the numbers:

$736,000

Record-breaking price paid for the Japanese-caught bluefin (56.49 million yen)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

593

The mammoth fish's weight, in pounds

$1,238

Price per pound, also a Tsukiji record

$416,000

Previous record price for a tuna, sold to a Hong Kong restaurateur at Tsukiji's first auction of 2011

$153,000

Average price of tuna sold during Tsukiji's first-of-the-year auctions, over 15 years

10,000

Number of pieces into which Kimura's $736,000 tuna was cut for sushi

$24

Price each choice piece of fatty "o-toro" bluefin sushi can typically fetch in Tokyo

$74

Price at which Kimuru would have to sell each piece of bluefin sushi to break even

$5.45

Price at which his restaurant chain Sushi-Zanmai sold each piece

$600,000

Kimura's estimated financial loss from the bluefin

80

Percentage of the world's bluefin that Japan consumes

125

Per capita amount of fish the Japanese eat each year, in pounds

38

Global average per capita amount of fish consumed each year, in pounds

500

Number of visitors who trek to the vast Tsukiji market at 4 a.m. each day to watch the tuna auction

43

Number of football fields that could fit inside Tsukiji

Sources: AFP, Bloomberg, MSNBC, TIME