Death Mochi Cake In Tokyo Causing Fallen Victims Again Every New Year

Photo by Minh Anh Nguyen on Unsplash

JAKARTA - You may often consume this food. Mochi, a traditional Japanese cake made from glutinous rice, which is pounded so that it is soft and sticky, then shaped into a ball. But every turn of the year, the police are always afraid of this food.

In Japan, this cake is often made and eaten during the traditional mochitsuki or Japanese New Year celebrations. These cakes are sold and can be obtained easily in cake shops. Mochi has a distinctive taste, which is soft when first eaten and over time it becomes sticky.

But this mochi cake turned out to be dangerous. At least for the elderly who are still fond of consuming it.

Just imagine, at the turn of 2022, two women in their 80s died. Another four people aged between 88 and 100 were taken to the hospital Saturday, January 1 after they all choked on mochi, as quoted by Japan Today.

One of the women, 88, choked on mochi at her home at around 8 am and was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Every year before the New Year's holiday, the National Police and Fire and Disaster Management Agency urge parents to be careful when eating sticky rice cake mochi. Authorities have advised people to cut their mochi into small pieces and eat it very carefully and in the presence of other people.

According to The Strait Times, in 2018, 15 people aged between 55 and 90 were taken to a hospital in Tokyo after choking on mochi cake. Sadly, two of them died.

Thirteen of them were in their 70s or older, according to the Kyodo news agency. The Tokyo Fire Department said the two people who died were a man in his 50s and another in his 80s. The other seven people were in critical condition when they arrived at the hospital.

Each year this chewy snack takes several lives in Japan, prompting an annual warning from officials. Over the past 10 years, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, most of those who died were elderly citizens.