2 dead, 13 hospitalized after choking on mochi in Tokyo
TOKYO —
The Tokyo Fire Department said Wednesday that 15 elderly people were hospitalized on Tuesday and Wednesday after choking on mochi rice cakes. Of those, two died—an 83-year-old man from Suginami Ward and a 68-year-old man from Shinagawa Ward.
On Monday, the National Police Agency and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency appealed to elderly people to be careful when eating mochi during the New Year holidays.
The cakes, a traditional New Year’s food, cause choking incidents among elderly people every year. Authorities said elderly people should cut up their mochi into small chunks and eat it with great care, and in the presence of someone else.
Japan Today
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0
Yubaru
Once again............appeals by officials but stubborn old folks who won't listen. What a shame. RIP.
6
TheInterstat
Japan in a nutshell right there; tradition over forward thinking logic.
0
alliswellinjapan
An integral part of life that unfortunately cannot be easily changed or better addressed under the "it won't happen to me" mindset. There also continues to be those who take a fatal risk through cooking blowfish on their own. Hope at least the numbers are decreasing each year as more people are reminded or made aware.
0
noriyosan73
Looking at the crime committed by people using knives, it seems that there should be plenty of knives in the homes to CUT the mochi into smaller portions. Size isn't everything.
0
hkitagawa
Better to sue the Mochi factories. They need to put in the package large instructions about how to eat it safely. Then there will be no accidents.
1
missbatten
Mochi now have "break lines", but it takes some strength to break them, and even more to cut them into small pieces. Elderly people and young children have long been given shiratama dumplings, but that means making a serving of them separately, and replacing the mochi under protest from the elderly person. I went looking this year for some kind of "mochi for the elderly", but absolutely no luck. It should be easy enough to make mochi-shaped objects that are softer and less chewy, even if they do not have the shelf life of regular mochi. Why don't manufacturers take the opportunity to make a little money?
3
apeman
15 people hospitalized out of the no doubt hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who ate the stuff? Unfortunate, but I wonder how many people choked on other types of foods on Tuesday and Wednesday.
-1
noriyosan73
Would it help if the schools required heimlich maneuver lessons in PE and safe knife use in the kitchen home economics?
1
mangosqueezesbanana
c'mon people have a heart-it is the elderly we are talking about here
-1
noriyosan73
That is the point - "it is the elderly we are talking about here." Nobody seems to know what to do for any age group if choking occurs. Children are given toys with dangerous, little parts, adults go to steak restaurants, and the elderly try to eat as if they are younger. Children need to know the Heimlich maneuver, and as they get older, the benefit will spread.
0
smithinjapan
The elderly should be forbidden from eating mochi that is not cut up in small pieces. I don't care if it's "tradition"; it should NOT be a tradition to die from eating it. And yet it's become that: a few days before authorities ask that the elderly be careful and cut up rice cakes before eating, and a few days later we get the report of how many died from not doing so.
0
Thunderbird2
I tried one of these a couple of New Years ago, my ex made them with red bean soup. Very nice, but I can see how people choke on them... like some kind of demonic marshmallow.
-1
Nessie
Yup. There are probably more inadvertent yakitori-skewer stabbings on a typical weekend in Shinjuku.
0
Aristoman
Tokyo... What about country?
0
gjn48kawaii
Thanks Kenmin Show.
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