A Japanese restaurateur has paid a record Y56.49 million (£472,038) for a massive bluefin tuna in the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market on Thursday.

The 269-kg (593lb) tuna was caught off northeast Japan’s Aomori Prefecture and easily surpassed the Y32.5 million paid at last year’s auction for a larger fish, which weighed in at 342kg (754lb).
The first auction of the year is traditionally a time for exorbitant bids on the choicest tuna, but the owner of the Japanese sushi chain said he was determined to outbid foreign buyers who had beaten him in recent years.