A monster bluefin tuna has been sold in Japan for a record price at the wholesale fish market in Tokyo.

The 222-kilogram fish fetched a winning bid of 155.4 million yen ($1.7 million) at the Tsukiji fish market's first auction for the year.

The figure dwarfs the previous high of 56.49 million yen ($616,000) paid for a bluefin tuna at last year's auction at Tsukiji.

The winning bidder was Kiyoshi Kimura, the president of a popular sushi chain, who also paid the previous record price.

He described the fish as "a little bit expensive".

"I wanted to meet expectations of my customers who said they wanted to eat Japan's best tuna again this year," Kimura told Jiji Press.

"With this good tuna, I hope to help cheer up Japan."

Based on the price paid - around $7,630 per kilogram - a single slice of sushi from the monster fish would cost diners as much as $325.

Mr Kimura told local media he planned to sell the fish for a huge loss, at a more realistic 398 yen ($4.34) per portion.

Bluefin is usually the most expensive fish available at Tsukiji.

Decades of overfishing have seen global tuna stocks crash, leading some Western nations to call for a ban on catching endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Japan consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as "kuro maguro" (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs the "black diamond" because of its scarcity.

ABC/AFP