A 24-year-old young man receives COVID-19 support money from 463 families in Japan

Japan has taken many measures to ensure a safe learning environment for students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic – Photo: Kyodo/VNA

According to the plan, the town of Abu will support 463 households affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 100,000 yen per household. The authorities of this town made a list of all those who were supported and sent the list of their accounts to the bank for disbursement.

Due to technical errors from saving data and transferring data to banks, the entire amount of support for the above families was transferred to the account of a young man believed to be 24 years old.

When he received the money “falling from the sky” on April 8, this young man silently transferred money from his account, transferring about 600,000 yen every day for two weeks to avoid detection.

Abu town officials then tracked down this person to recover the wrong amount. When finding the subject on April 21, this person said the money had disappeared from his account and could not be refunded.

The Abu town authorities were in a dilemma because they themselves made the wrong transfer, so it wasn’t theft. After consulting with lawyers and law enforcement agencies, the Abu town authorities on May 12 filed a lawsuit against the man, demanding 51.16 million yen, including legal fees.

However, this young man withdrew all the money from his account, quit his job and left the residence while the town of Abu carried out legal proceedings. According to a lawyer, the lawsuit will still take place in the absence of this person, but according to the regulations, after 10 years, the claim will expire.