Osaka stunned by anonymous gift of gold bars to fix ageing water pipes | Japan
Osaka received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560 million yen (£2.7 million) from an anonymous donor and a request for its exclusive use: to repair the Japanese city’s dilapidated water pipes.
The gold bars, weighing a total of 21 kg (46 lb), were given to the Osaka City Water Works Bureau in November by the donor who wanted to help improve aging water pipes, Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama told reporters on Thursday.
“This is such a staggering amount and I am speechless,” Yokoyama said. “Tackling aging water pipes requires a huge investment and I can’t thank you enough for the donation.”
The mayor said the city, which is Japan’s third largest city with a population of 2.8 million, will respect the donor’s wishes and use the gift to develop waterworks projects.
Much of Japan’s major public infrastructure was built during rapid postwar economic growth, but urban development in Osaka, a regional commercial center, started earlier than most and its water pipes and other infrastructure aged earlier, said Eiji Kotani, the city’s waterworks official.
He said Osaka needs to replace 160 miles (260 km) of water pipes. Kotani said renovating the 1.2-mile segment would cost about 500 million yen.
In Osaka, there were 92 cases of water pipe leaks under urban roads in the fiscal year ending March 2025, Kotani said.
Concerns about the safety of Japan’s water supply systems were raised last year when a truck crashed into a ditch, killing the driver. It was connected to a damaged sewer in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
