Authorities appeal to elderly to be careful when eating 'mochi'
This illustration from the Tokyo Fire Department cautions elderly people not to eat big chunks of mochi.
Tokyo Fire Department
TOKYO —
The National Police Agency and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency on Wednesday appealed to elderly people to be careful when eating “mochi” rice cakes during the New Year holidays.
The cakes, a traditional New Year’s food, cause choking incidents among elderly people every year. Authorities advised people across Japan to cut up their “mochi” into small chunks and to eat it with great care, and in the presence of someone else.
This year, nine people choked to death after eating “mochi” on Jan 1. In Tokyo alone, 18 people were sent to hospital due to suffocation after eating “mochi.”
During the New Year period, families traditionally cook “ozoni” soup and put the sticky rice cakes in the vegetable broth.
Japan Today
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21 Comments
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0
smithinjapan
How about not selling it in large pieces, or else when people make it be asked to automatically cut it up into small pieces. It doesn't lessen tradition any, and is safer. But, people will insist, and people will die. Pretty crazy picture, by the way.
0
wanderlust
Hoovers and Dysons might come in useful when the Heimlich manoeuvre fails...
1
Laguna
Okay, thanks for the heads-up. I'll stick to my surume.
1
Monozuki
This is gonna date me but it's been more than 10 years since I stopped eating 餅 or mochi once and for all. Yes, as they say, it is best to be on the safe side.
1
Mirai Hayashi
Warnings aren't going to work! They need to come out with a reformulated mochi for older people and young children so that they are are more water soluble and melt faster inside the mouth.
1
Extra Virgin Palm Oil
I'm afraid that until a safe way is found to duplicate the same intensity of insane rush which only comes from eating a New Year's mochi, we will continue to have elderly people defying the advice of their youngers, and putting their lives at risk.
-1
Ah_so
I look forward to the invention of melting rice!
-6
timtak
Japanese food culture is in general safe but has its dangerous parts. As Extra Virgin Palm Oil points out, the eating of mochi produces a rush. Elsewhere a similar sort of rush is achieved by eating larger quantities of Christmas cake in ways far less likely to cause asphyxiation but more likely to cause diabetes, obesity, stroke and heart disease.
0
Yubaru
Compared to what? Mochi is a traditional food around the new year, and no matter the age, folks like eating it.
Sadly there will be the inevitable death from choking and I feel for the families that lose loved one's this way, particularly during the holiday season.
1
Conspiracy Theories
Japan should also take a larger stance on providing more CPR/First Aid/AED training for It's citizens as well. I know local fire departments provides this training every so often, but i've yet to see large scale publicity of these sessions.
1
sf2k
Does it blend?
0
jpntdytmrow
mochi, konnyaku, konnyaku zeri, kamoboku, tako, ika, a few of the hard to chew and swallow foods I can think of that elderly might avoid altogether for their rather "rubbery" textures.
2
GW
A RUSH from eating mochi.............what the......maybe I have been eating the wrong stuff!!!
Where pray tell can we buy mocha that will give us a buzz LOL!!!
That cartoon looks like the obasan is trying to get the oyaji to eat a big chunk, trying to knock the old guy off!!!
0
smithinjapan
GW: "A RUSH from eating mochi.............what the......maybe I have been eating the wrong stuff!!!"
I think Extra Virgin was being sarcastic. Sadly, I think TimTak thought he or she was being serious.
Mirai Hayashi: "They need to come out with a reformulated mochi for older people and young children so that they are are more water soluble and melt faster inside the mouth."
Might help when it's bought or served from bought stuff, but not for people who make it themselves, who probably insist on polished white rice being used because it's "more delicious".
Conspiracy Theories: "Japan should also take a larger stance on providing more CPR/First Aid/AED training for It's citizens as well."
I agree with you, but knowing CPR isn't going to help people choking on mochi. For the same reasons people choke on the stuff, you wouldn't be able to get it out of their throats knowing the Heimlick maneuver and are unlikely to be able to get it out using your finger if it's lodged in there.
-1
Conspiracy Theories
Smithinjapan, CPR would be administered after the victim stopped breathing. That's why I also mentioned First-aid. You would learn abdominal thrusts and back blows to dislodge food caught in the windpipe.
0
Jumin Rhee
Bite-size would be helpful...no cutting required.
1
Saketown
This is No Joke! Last New Years Eve, my J-Wife and I were watching Gaki No Tsukai - "Don't Laugh" End of the Year Special with Hamada and Matsumoto, and I laughed so hard at one point that I started to choke on just a little piece of Mochi.
So yes, be careful and Don't Laugh! (While eating Mochi)
0
fxgai
My tax payer money is hard at work again this year, I see.
Remember also, everybody, to stand still on the escalators, as walking or running on them is dangerous.
Have a safe and Happy New Year!
-1
timtak
If both don't the brave may wish to perform an airway incision centrally just below the voice box. I heard of someone doing this successful with a steak knife and barrel of a ball point pen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricothyrotomy
1
savethegaijin
Womp womp womp... Not going to happen.
My MIL had all of her teeth removed a few years ago and on New Years, before her mouth had even completely recovered, my husband politely suggested that she cut her mochi in small pieces to be safe... She became hyper offended and snapped "Don't treat me like an old person!!! It doesn't taste the same if you cut it!". They can warn people all they want but it won't make the slightest bit of difference. People will do what they want to do no matter what.
-1
timtak
I put up a chart showing the levels of all accidental death in Japan where choking on food comes near the top. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/23993650831/
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