By Irene Wang

TOKYO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - A Japanese sushi restaurant bid 510 million yen ($3.24 million) for a single bluefin tuna on Monday, by far the highest-ever price paid at the annual New Year auction at Tokyo's Toyosu fish market.

Weighing 243 kg (536 pounds), the prized catch went to Kiyomura Corp, the Tokyo-based operator of popular sushi restaurant chain Sushizanmai.

“I hope the economy will get better this year. The Takaichi administration pledged to work, work, work, so Sushizanmai will work, work, work too," said Kiyomura chief Kiyoshi Kimura, referring to the four-month-old government of Sanae Takaichi, Japan's first female prime minister. "I hope this bid will cheer everyone up."

The eye-popping bid beat Kiyomura's own previous record of 333.6 million yen in 2019.

"I thought that (the winning bid) would come in a little bit lower, maybe around 400 million or 300 million yen but it turned out to be over 500 million,” Kimura, known as the "Tuna King", told reporters.

The giant tuna was transported to Sushizanmai's head branch, then sliced up and distributed to its restaurants nationwide. The tuna dishes will be sold to customers at the usual price, Kimura said.

($1 = 157.2300 yen)

(Reporting by Irene Wang; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jamie Freed)