HACHINOHE, Aomori Prefecture--A bag found in a city hall restroom contained 40 million yen ($512,000) in cash and a letter asking municipal officials to use the money to help victims of the March 11 disaster.
HACHINOHE, Aomori Prefecture--A bag found in a city hall restroom contained 40 million yen ($512,000) in cash and a letter asking municipal officials to use the money to help victims of the March 11 disaster.
Local officials said on Oct. 28 that janitors discovered the dark plastic carrier bag on a chair in the city hall's annex building the previous day.
Police officers who were notified opened the bag and found 4,000 10,000-yen notes in wrapping paper and an envelope addressed to the Hachinohe mayor.
The donor was only identified as "a person of Tohoku," who asked that 10 million yen each be given to the prefectures of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima to "help the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake."
The donor also asked the city not to make the cash gift public, according to the officials.
But Mayor Makoto Kobayashi decided to disclose the donation because the money will be used as public funds.
City officials and the prefectural governments named will discuss what to do with the money.
In September, a plastic bag containing 10 million yen in cash was found in a restroom at Sakado city hall in Saitama Prefecture. An anonymous note asked that the money be given to people in the Tohoku region.