A 90-year-old former top bureaucrat was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for negligence over a car accident in Tokyo in 2019 in which a woman and her young daughter were killed.
The Tokyo District Court ruled that Kozo Iizuka — a former chief of the now-defunct Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry — was guilty of running a red light after mistaking the gas pedal for the brake, killing the mother and daughter and injuring nine others in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo.
Presiding Judge Kenji Shimotsu said the defendant made a mistake in stepping on the gas pedal instead of the brake. "If you accept the ruling, I want you to admit your mistake and responsibility and sincerely apologize to the bereaved family," Shimotsu said.