Japan has a New Year's killer, striking every year - this year, claiming nine lives and leaving 13 more injured.
Mochi - gummy mounds of pounded rice - are traditional Japanese holiday fare, eaten toasted with soy sauce and seaweed or in soup.
Every year, mochi claims the lives of Japanese ringing in the new year, but 2015 claimed more lives than usual, according to The Guardian.
Last year, there were at least four mochi-related deaths. The year before, only 2. This year, local media reported nine deaths, according to The Guardian, with 13 others recovering in a hospital.
Of the yearly deaths, 80 percent occur among the elderly. Japan's emergency services urges people every year to cut mochi into smaller, bite-sized pieces for children or the elderly, according to The Guardian.
As the median age of Japan's population rises, concerns over more mochi deaths rise. A company in Osaka claims to have developed an easy-to-swallow mochi that employs an enzyme that makes the glutinous cakes less sticky.
