OSAKA — Police revealed that 29 people had jumped into the Dotonbori River in Osaka’s bustling Minami district as of 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 8 after the Hanshin Tigers clinched the Central League title on Sept. 7 for the first time in two years.
When the team won the league in 2003, it was reported that around 5,300 people jumped into the river, resulting in a fatality. This time, Osaka Prefectural Police deployed a force of 1,000 officers for crowd control, closing off parts of a riverside promenade so that people would not encourage anyone to jump in. The police also made Ebisu Bridge over the river one-way to prevent congestion.
The 29 individuals reportedly jumped from a nearby promenade rather than from Ebisu Bridge, where police officers were lined up.
(Japanese original by Hayato Matsubara and Tomoe Saito, Osaka City News Department)