It's the kind of tuna that only the truly affluent can afford; it's nearly a million US dollars, after all.

The sale of a bluefin tuna was the highlight in the first auction of the year at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.

Caught off north-eastern Japan, the 269-kilogram tuna fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or US$ 732,000.

The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of sushi restaurant chain Kiyomura Co., said his bid was not only about the worth of the tuna, although it is typically prized for its tender red meat.

Kimura said his true intention with his bid is to keep the tuna in Japan instead of getting to an offshore bidder. He added he wanted to "liven up Japan" and help the country recover from last year's massive catastrophes, media reports said.

The tuna was caught off Oma, in Aomori prefecture and just north of the coast that was battered by the March 11 tsunami, the Associated Press reported.

Last year's record was at 32.49 million yen or US$ 421,000, and the bid winners were Hong Kong entrepreneur Ricky Cheng, who runs the Hong Kong-based chain Itamae Sushi, and an upscale Japanese restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district.