Mystery gold gifts for tsunami-wracked Japan port
JAPAN: A Japanese city devastated by the 2011 tsunami has received
anonymous gifts of gold worth more than $ 250,000 in a phenomenon dubbed
a “goodwill gold rush” ahead of the second anniversary of the disaster.
The president of the company which operates the port in the
northeastern city of Ishinomaki last week received a parcel containing
two slabs of gold each weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds). “Since it was
labelled as 'miscellaneous goods,' I casually opened the box,” thinking
it must be books or the like as it was heavy, said Kunio Sunow,
President of the Ishinomaki Fish Market Co. Ltd. “I was stunned because
what's in there was 24k gold in two plates. One was wrapped in brown
paper and the other in a page taken from a magazine -- both were sitting
in bubble sheets,” he told AFP by telephone on Saturday.
The parcel had been sent anonymously from Nagano city northwest of
Tokyo with no message. “Just looking at 24k gold can encourage people as
it has a presence. It's great to know we haven't been forgotten,” Sunow
said, adding he had not yet decided how to use the gift. Japanese media
said a non-profit group in Ishinomaki that has been supporting its
revival had also received two kilograms of gold bullion and at least one
more group got more than one kilogram.
The gifts have mystified Japanese people, prompting the
mass-circulation Asahi newspaper to call the phenomenon a “goodwill gold
rush” in Ishinomaki.
AFP |