TOKYO (TR) – Over the first three days of the New Year, one elderly person died and five others were hospitalized after choking on sticky mochi rice cakes, reports Fuji News Network (Jan. 4).
According to the Tokyo Fire Department, between New Year’s Day and January 3, six men and women, aged 80 to 96, were taken to hospitals by ambulance after choking on mochi.
Of these, a woman aged in her 80s and living in Minato Ward died, and five men and women in their 80s and 90s are in serious condition.
The woman in her 80s who died choked while eating daifuku (a type of mochi).
The department urges people to drink fluids before eating mochi and to cut it into small pieces.
