What should have been a romantic moment between two smitten lovers, making a passionate kiss even sweeter by passing a chocolate between their locked lips, was turned into a terrible tragedy, according to Shukan Asahi (5/30).

As the young woman in her 20s passed a chocolate with her mouth to the 47-year-old man driving through the streets of Noheji, Aomori Prefecture, late last year, he took his eyes off the road and slammed into pedestrian Yo Sugiyama, killing the 69-year-old man, according to police.

The driver, who has a wife and children, is now awaiting trial for negligent driving resulting in death, while his lover is also up on a charge of aggravated negligence resulting in death.

Sugiyama's infirm widow, 73-year-old Masako, is heartbroken by the events of Dec. 28.

"I sent my husband out to do some shopping. The snow made the roads bad, so I told him to walk instead of riding his bike as he normally would, and made him change into decent shoes. And he got run over on his way home," Mrs. Sugiyama tells Shukan Asahi, adding that her husband was allegedly mowed down in front of the home of a relative, who reported the incident to paramedics.

"At the time, the woman in the car was telling everybody she was just a passer-by who witnessed the accident, so I believed her," the relative tells Shukan Asahi. "When I heard later on the TV that she'd caused the crash, I was really shocked."

Masako Sugiyama says the man accused of causing the accident apologized to her at her husband's funeral, but failed to tell her about the role his lover is alleged to have played. It was only much later that prosecutors told the widow their story of what happened.

"At first, my son, who drives a car and knows how tough it can be, asked the authorities not to be too hard on the driver," Mrs. Sugiyama says. "But when we learned the crash had been caused by a woman who wasn't his wife giving him a chocolate kiss, we were furious."

Mrs. Sugiyama says while the family has been outraged by the untimely demise its circumstances, they are keeping mum over the incident to protect surviving relatives, notably Sugiyama's 93-year-old mother.

"We can't tell her what happened and how her son died because it would be too much for her," Mrs. Sugiyama says.

The widow is seething at having lost her husband just before they were due to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

"A life lost for a chocolate? Why couldn't she just hand it over to him? Why did she have to pass it from mouth to mouth?" Mrs. Sugiyama asks Shukan Asahi rhetorically. "I'm so lonely now ... I've got nobody to fight with." (By Ryann Connell)