Sapporo: One-Year-Old Boy Dies at Licensed Nursery School Due to "Inappropriate Food Size" — Investigation Report Highlights Issues in Reporting System and Life-Saving Procedures

On October 23, 2024, a tragic incident occurred at a licensed daycare center in Kita Ward, Sapporo, where a 1-year and 1-month-old boy choked on food during lunch and subsequently died. On September 10, 2025, a third-party verification working group submitted a report to the Mayor of Sapporo regarding this incident. The report highlighted three main issues: ① the size of the food provided as baby food was inappropriate, ② there were discrepancies in the emergency response procedures compared to the manual, and ③ there was a delay in reporting and communication. According to city records, the anomaly was noticed around 11:08 to 11:09 AM, and while life-saving measures were being conducted within the daycare, an emergency call was made and the child was transported, but unfortunately, he passed away. The menu for the day included **"soy milk miso soup," "stir-fried dish in a grilled meat style," "boiled cabbage," "soft rice," and "yogurt," with the likely cause being thinly sliced pork. In terms of administrative response, warnings to other daycare centers were issued approximately three weeks after the incident, which the mayor acknowledged as "too late." This article proposes a comprehensive view of the incident and the key points of the report, suggesting a triad of preventive measures that should be immediately implemented by both the daycare centers and the administration: size standardization, training standardization, and reporting standardization.**