Jori Town, Ibaraki Mayor Only Offers a Steamed Bun After the Car Accident According to the Victim

He said, “I was waiting at a traffic light when he suddenly ran into me from behind. It was a tremendous impact and I bruised my neck. According to the police, the other driver was going 30 km/h.”

Yusuke Yamanaka (pseudonym, 33), who runs an event company in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, recalled the circumstances of the accident. He was calm, but he was also very angry.

Osamu Katono, 44, the mayor of Jori-cho, Ibaraki Prefecture, was involved in a collision on a national highway in the prefecture at around 18:00 on January 16. While driving his own car, he rear-ended Yamanaka’s car, which was waiting at a traffic light in the right turn lane of a three-lane road. The next day, a report in the Ibaraki Shimbun made it clear.

The mayor of Kamitono Town is known for the “priority vaccination issue” in which he was the first elderly person to receive the Corona vaccine in May 2021. The excuse that the mayor is a medical professional drew criticism.

The mayor was also said to have treated the victims with an unbelievable attitude at the scene of the accident. Mr. Yamanaka continues.

After the accident, we called the police and moved our cars to a nearby convenience store. Then he bought a steamed meat bun and said, ‘Would you like some?”, without a sincere apology, you know?　After that, when I thought he called his own insurance company, he told them, ‘The other party is not injured.” I was furious, saying, ‘What are they deciding on their own?’ I was furious.”

The police eventually arrived and urged us to exchange contact information. The mayor of Kamitono was even more incredulous.

“I didn’t realize it was the mayor,” he said. So I asked him his name, and he said, ‘Osamu Katono,’ so I typed it into my cell phone and showed him the screen while listening to the kanji characters.”

What Mr. Yamanaka typed in was the name “Osamu Katono” with a different Kanji. The mayor of Kamitono replied, “That’s correct.”

When I showed the cell phone screen to the police officer, he said, ‘This is wrong.’ When I questioned him, he said, ‘My glasses were fogged up.’ But I entered the information while looking at the screen with him. He didn’t even give me his business card, and I thought, “I don’t trust this guy. To top it all off, he called a cab and said, ‘May I be excused?’ I stopped him and said, ‘Wait a minute.'”

The next day, Mr. Yamanaka was astonished to learn from news reports that the other party was the mayor of the town. However, since then, he has received only one administrative contact from the mayor, and no direct apology.

Mr. Yamanaka is furious about the mayor’s way of  handling of the accident, but what will the mayor have to say in response?

–I asked the mayor of Kamitono if he was driving at a high speed.

If I had been going very fast, I would have had whiplash, too. But I didn’t have any such problems.

–Before apologizing, did he give him a steamed bun?

I bowed many times and said I was sorry. I tried to give him something warm, but he would push me away.

–I think I gave him the wrong name.

It was cold and my glasses were fogged up, so I couldn’t see the kanji characters very well. It was about 18:00 in the evening, and it was pitch black.

–He didn’t even give him his business card.

I don’t give out business cards except in business.

–He was leaving the other party behind and was about to go home.

I was urged to do so by the police. But the other person asked me, ‘Are you leaving already?’ I saw him off and went home.

–The other party in the accident is angry that he was dishonest in his response.

“I think I apologized. Maybe he is still dissatisfied with the way the insurance company handled the situation.”

Mayor Kamitono repeated that he had apologized, but if it is not conveyed to the other party, it cannot be called a sincere response.

From the March 3 and 10, 2023 issues of FRIDAY