Gold bars worth donated anonymously to fix Osaka’s aging water pipes

Mohan Sinha
24 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT+10

An anonymous donor gifted gold bars to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau worth 560 million yen (US$3.6 million) and told them to fix the city’s dilapidated water pipes
Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama told reporters this week that the gold bars weighed 21 kilograms (46 pounds)
The mayor said his city would respect the donor’s wishes and use the gift to improve waterworks projects

TOKYO, Japan: An anonymous donor gifted gold bars to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau worth 560 million yen (US$3.6 million) and told them to fix the city's dilapidated water pipes.

Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama told reporters this week that the gold bars weighed 21 kilograms (46 pounds).

The mayor said his city would respect the donor's wishes and use the gift to improve waterworks projects.

Worries about the safety of Osaka's water systems increased after a huge sinkhole swallowed a truck and killed the driver last year. The incident was linked to a broken sewer pipe in Saitama, north of Tokyo.

In the fiscal year ending in March 2025, Osaka recorded 92 water pipe leaks under city roads, according to the city's waterworks official Eiji Kotani on February 20.

Osaka has a population of 2.8 million and is Japan's third-largest city. It serves as the main city in western Japan.

Most of Japan's major public infrastructure was built during the country's fast economic growth after World War II.

Kotani said Osaka began developing earlier than many other cities because it is a major business center. As a result, its water pipes and other systems are also aging sooner.

He said Osaka needs to replace 259 kilometers (160 miles) of water pipes. Replacing just a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) section would cost about 500 million yen (around $3.2 million).