TOKYO Japan may be suffering from deflation, but prices at Tokyo's world famous fish market are an exception. A single tuna was knocked down for a record 20.2 million yen ($174,000) at the year's first auction on Friday, AFP reported.

The 202-kilogram (444 pound) blue-fin tuna, caught late last year in the Tsugaru Straits off Aomori, northern Japan, was bought by a middleman at Tokyo's Tsukiji wholesale market, Japan's biggest fish market.

"I just wanted the highest quality tuna," the buyer said. The price -- which works out at 100,000 yen a kilogram (45,455 yen a pound) easily surpassed the previous record of 9.4 million yen set in 1995.

In Japan, tuna is mainly used for high-priced sushi.

Some 4,000 tuna fish were sold at the Tsukiji auction, which was crowded with 500 buyers and visitors.

"I hope this momentum will continue for the rest of the year," a market official said.