Pipe Corrosion Confirmed as Cause of 2025 Saitama Sinkhole

Saitama, Feb. 19 (Jiji Press)–The cause of the sinkhole that formed in the city of Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, in January 2025 was corrosion in a sewer pipe, an investigation committee comprising experts said in its final report on Thursday. The committee said that a rise in corrosion and damage risks could have been anticipated if more attention than usual had been paid. However, it concluded that the emergence of the sinkhole was not necessarily predictable. In the accident, the center of an intersection in Yashio caved in at around 9:50 a.m. on Jan. 28 last year, causing a truck to fall in. The truck and its 74-year-old male driver were trapped in a sewer pipe, but rescue efforts were hindered by the presence of sewage and hydrogen sulfide. The driver’s body was recovered from the deformed cabin of the truck about three months later. According to the report, the Saitama prefectural government was unable to obtain images of the sewer pipe in a fiscal 2021 survey using cameras. This resulted in the prefecture underestimating the risk of corrosion. “We think that the survey method employed by the prefecture was not inferior to those of other local governments,” Junichiro Niwa, vice chair of the investigation committee, said at a press conference. “It is fair to say that the unprecedented accident was unpredictable.” “It is our responsibility to cooperate with the central government to establish better survey methods and new technologies,” Saitama Governor Motohiro Ono told reporters. “We will work to share a sense of danger with other prefectures so that such accidents do not occur again.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]