| Place: | Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, Japan |
| Reported Death(S): | 124 |
| Participants: | 35000–40000 |
| Reported Injuries: | 75 |
| Reported Property Damage: | collapsed shrine stone walls |
Just after midnight in the morning of 1 January 1956 a human crowd crush and stampede resulted in the death of 124 individuals and 75 people were injured at the Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, Japan.
Around midnight of 1 January 1956, 35,000 to 40,000 people visited the Yahiko Shrine to pay the traditional honors on the occasion of the new year.[1] Just after midnight a stampede occurred on the steep steps leading to the shrine at the moment the priest started throwing down rice cookies, according to the tradition. The two-metres high stone walls on the sides of the stair collapsed due to the pushing by crowd. People were buried under the stones or fell down. [2]
Initial reports listed 112 deaths and 50 injured people.[3] [4] These numbers later increased to 124 deaths and 75 injured people.[5]