H.I.S. reveals fraudulent receipt of travel subsidies

Hard to believe HIS still exists.

Wow. Is anyone being arrested for the theft?

Japanese travel agency H.I.S. Co said Friday its subsidiaries fraudulently received the government's tourism promotion subsidies last year by overreporting the number of hotel room stays they sold.

The tax money garnished from struggling workers wages in the pandemic used to keep such companies in existence. For what purpose? Corporations viewed legally as individuals but their existence is more important than the many driven to suicide by pandemic economic pressure?

Counting down to the inevitable next report of the misappropriation ( not that there is anything appropriate with it) of GoTo subsidies.

HIS is a despicable company - and that’s largely from experience. I wouldn’t use them if they were the only ones selling tickets to go back home.

it is problem that the government couldn't find it.

Unbelievable. They know the law and that they'll get caught. HIS is gone!

HIS is a despicable company - and that’s largely from experience. I wouldn’t use them if they were the only ones selling tickets to go back home.

Wow! This is interesting. I hope they get caught. I stopped doing business with them years ago. I didn't like the fact that they had me pay for the ticket, only later on, they charged me more because some "oil price/gas price" went up, and I had to cover the extra charge. No thanks!

it is problem that the government couldn't find it.

Really? Do you realize how hard it is for the government to watch over everything? You're getting mad that they weren't able to do the impossible.

This is what auditors are for.

Tip tip of the iceberg. If they move their lazy ass and investigate they will find thousands of cases. There hundred of thousands of companies and companies who have made a fortune illicitly frm this pandemic. The two bureaucrats who formed a paper company and received government funds were handed only suspended sentences. Pity the plebs me included in this country.

HBJToday 07:51 am JST

HIS is a despicable company - and that’s largely from experience. I wouldn’t use them if they were the only ones selling tickets to go back home.

Can't add anything to this as you have hit the nail on the head.

GoodToday 06:51 am JST

Hard to believe HIS still exists.

True. Still a few gullible people out there it seems.

Yay, more national news about fraud.

The REAL Japan!

HIS had its time.

It reminds me of the time when I was booking trips at travel agencies and AB-Road was a very good and popular magazine to search for tours. All in one.

"...adding his company has no plan to file a criminal complaint."

Despite the criminal behaviour? I guess they want to do it again very shortly, so they can't very well start setting a precedent.

I’ve never used HIS and I cant believe HIS still exists. We plan where to go or stay by ourselves. That is the fun part of travel.

All the above is just the tip of the iceberg. One can only speculate how much public money got pocketed by what can only be described as "fraud". Still waiting for anybody to be arrested, prosecuted and heavy fines be handed out. (Not holding my breath though...)

Excellent post.

Remember the bailouts of JTB and other companies in industries and they promptly turned around and radically downsized and restructured?

Maximizing their share prices. GoTo and these subsidies are all vast wealth transfers from the public to shareholders.

I remember back in 2004/5 when HIS was charging foreign nationals more for round-trip tickets than they were for Japanese. Their reasoning was that foreigners were more likely to ditch the return part of the trip back to Japan on the round-trip ticket. (Round-trip tickets were cheaper than one-way tickets at the time.) That's when I stopped using them.

I had my wife buy the tickets instead of me and it was a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than if I had bought them.

H.I.S. The local office. There were some very nice folks that worked at the agency. Helpful, found the best fares and accommodations. I cannot speak for the corporate poohbahs. They even did some fine follow-up, locating an even cheaper means of travel.

I used HIS when they had a R/T w/Hotel to Seoul for ¥19,000 3/day/2Night, THAT was the time to use HIS :)

Isn't that the company where, if a gaijin called for a price on a trip, they'd be quoted one price, while a Japanese calling minutes later would be quoted 20% less for the same product?

That is about $6,210,000 USD !hard to believe that someone could swindle so much cash out of the government without even those in charge even noticing??

It looks like this is not the end of this subsidies scams, stay tuned, more to come by the look of it.

This is what happened when you put cash out for people to garb.

The whole Go Travel subsidies program was basically an invitation to all the scammers and crooks to rip it off,