{
  "id": 11148793,
  "title": "Japan city of Sakai records living spouse as dead and deletes resident record",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/japan-city-of-sakai-records-living-spouse-as-dead-and-deletes",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-01T08:42:44.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Mainichi",
    "slug": "the-mainichi",
    "url": "https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20261001/p2a/00m/0na/044000c"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Sakai, a city in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, revealed on September 29 that a city employee had mistakenly marked both a deceased individual and their living spouse as deceased when processing a death notification. As a result, the spouse's resident registration record was deleted. The error occurred on September 7 when an employee in the citizens' affairs division entered the incorrect information. Despite a colleague pointing out the mistake, the staff failed to follow the proper procedure to rectify it or verify that the information had been corrected. Consequently, the spouse lost eligibility for the medical care system for individuals aged 75 and older. The error was discovered on September 17 by a medical institution where the spouse was receiving treatment, which alerted city officials. The city promptly restored the resident record and expressed regret to both the spouse and their relatives. Multiple employees involved in the incident admitted that they had not conducted a thorough enough check. Both the citizens' affairs division and the Izumisano Resident Bureau issued apologies, vowing to enhance their verification procedures to prevent such mishaps from happening again.",
  "summary": "SAKAI, Osaka -- The city of Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, announced Sept. 29 that an employee had mistakenly recorded both a deceased pers",
  "key_points": [
    "Sakai city employee mistakenly marked deceased spouse as dead.",
    "Spouse's resident record deleted due to error on September 7.",
    "Error discovered on September 17, records restored with apologies."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Mainichi",
        "title": "Residents mixed over east Japan city's decision to accept nuclear waste disposal survey",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/01/residents-mixed-over-east-japan-citys-decision-to-accept-nuclear",
        "published": "2026-10-01T06:22:41.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}