Japan 's imperial palace said Thursday that it has fired an employee for stealing cash totaling 3.6 million yen from Emperor Naruhito and his family over more than a year.
The Imperial Household Agency identified the suspect as an employee in their 20s who was one of about 80 attendants assigned to the palace or the agency building to serve the daily needs of Naruhito and his family. The theft is an embarrassment for the royal household and its officials said it's been unheard of in modern history.
The case surfaced in March during an internal investigation by the IHA that started in January when an assistant manager of the department noticed a discrepancy between the cash in the safe and the accounting book.
When an agency official detected the loss of 30,000 yen in late March, the suspect who just ended an overnight duty was asked about it and admitted stealing cash, citing financial difficulty, the agency said.
In all, the suspect admitted to stealing a total of 3.6 million yen on a number of occasions from November 2023 to late March this year, and later returned the money by mid-April, it said.
The money was part of a 324 million yen annual budget allocated as living expenses for the emperor, his wife Masako, their daughter Princess Aiko and Naruhito’s parents — former Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
The IHA said it had filed a criminal complaint to the palace police and formally dismissed the employee. The assistant manager in his 40s, who initially noticed the cash irregularity in January, was given a one-month salary cut over his lax accounting management, the IHA said.
IHA chief Yasuhiko Nishimura said the theft by the employee as a public servant and a staff serving the imperial family was “unthinkable” and “extremely regrettable,” and apologized to the emperor and his family, NHK public television reported.
He pledged to tighten discipline among the palace staff, according to media reports.
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12 Comments
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sakurasuki
So there's no safe place anymore in Japan, even in imperial palace?
Also that employee fortunate he's living in modern times, just couldn't imagine if he caught during Japan feudal era. At least during that era there's no high inflation like now. Which can be his reason need to steal cash.
How much they that employee anyway?
Wasabi
It is nice to receive 324M yen and do nothing.
Some dude
Hey, I'm just pleased to see that there are still institutions in the world which actually punish people for theft. Or for anything.
wallace
No checks and balances on people handling cash.
Jalapeno
Why do they have cash, anyway? It's not like they're going to pop over to the local conbini and pick up an onigiri. That's what they have attendants for.
Cephus
"Imperial palace fires an employee for stealing cash."
If someone can dare stealing from the imperial palace just imagine if he or she was working in a convenient store?
Laguna
He's lucky he didn't do this during the Edo era. He would have found his head quite a few meters from his body.
Gaijinjland
Has the emperor ever even touched cash since his school days in the UK?
starpunk
It's even worse if you're stealing money that's in a bank. And with today's computer age, that's 'easier' to do. Still, this thief is a Big Dummy if he thought he could get away with stealing yen from the Emperor.
Major Uncool, man.
Wasabi
What is the difference? Stealing is stealing.
Jonathan Prin
Why cash ?
Any modern country you would see use of a VIP bank card, and take cash from ATM if needed.
I remember when arrriving to work in Japan for first time, I was granted some general expenses cash from a safe while my then company had no business with physical customers. So outdated. Still happening for sure like in the palace
IMadeAnAccountJustForThis
And because of this in the future, no-one is going to say anything.