'Drunk driving should not be treated as normal,' says daughter of Japanese tourist killed in Seoul

“Your mother has passed away.” The words flickered on the smartphone screen handed to Mayumi (pseudonym) by a member of the medical staff. Lying in a hospital bed, Mayumi, 39, stared blankly at the message. Familiar words, yet almost impossible to grasp, continued to appear through a translation app. There, lying in a bed in the emergency room of the National Medical Center in Seoul, sometime after 11:22 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2025, Mayumi was told the cause of her mother’s death: traumatic shock. She knew it was going to be bad. She had heard the ominous sounds of doctors rushing past and medical equipment being moved frantically around her. But somehow, perhaps wistfully, Mayumi still believed her mother would survive. Just an hour earlier, they had been walking casually down the street together, side by side. The news of her death rang hollow and unreal — until the tears came, followed by uncontrollable sobs. When Mayumi saw her mother, she could still feel warmth in Geiko’s (pseudonym) body. A few leaves were still caught in her hair, and her expressionless face looked almost peace

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