Event: Osaka

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.An anonymous donation of $3.6 million worth of gold highlights frustration with Osaka’s aging waterworks. It will only finance repairs to a fraction of the pipes that need to be replaced.The Osaka City Waterworks Bureau released a photo of the gold bars with serial numbers redacted.Credit...Osaka City Waterworks BureauFeb. 26, 2026Officials in Osaka, Japan, did not pay much attention when an anonymous donor pledged $3,000 toward repairing the city’s water pipes.But they did a few weeks later when the same donor sent the city a second installment: twenty-one gold bars worth more than $3 million and weighing about as much as an airline passenger’s checked baggage allowance.The gift, made in November and revealed last week by Osaka officials, has prompted speculation about the mystery donor and their motives. It has also focused attention on the city’s aging water pipes, which are some of the oldest in Japan.The city said in a statement that the gold bars were worth 566 million yen, or about $3.6 million, and that it would honor the donor’s wishes by using the money on the city’s waterworks. The anonymous donations will go toward the budget for the new fiscal year that starts in April, the Osaka Waterworks Bureau said.The gold will only help to fix a little more than a mile of the 350 miles of pipes that need to be replaced in Osaka, according to the bureau. But it illustrates frustration with the city’s aging water system that has been building for years.Osaka has been replacing about 30 miles of water pipes each year. The job is slow and expensive: The city estimates that installing more than 1,100 miles of…