Japan left to rethink COVID grants as telework facilities empty out

 However, the space only attracted five users in fiscal 2021 due to its inconvenient location.

The facility was not used at all from fiscal 2022 to 2023, leading to its closure at the beginning of this year.

That five users, per day? per month? per whole year? JGovt just really good in spending money.

The central government has budgeted a total of over 18 trillion yen in extraordinary subsidies

Why are governments paying for these? Unless the facilities are for public-sector workers, then the employers should be paying for them. Yet another case of Japan's extensive corporate welfare.

Japanese municipalities are increasingly being left to rethink the use of coronavirus-era government subsidies as remote work facilities built with the funding are falling into disuse, a survey by Kyodo News found Sunday.

Gross misuse of COVID stimulus funds and more LDP corporate welfare.

Other nations rolled out furlough pay and UBI even before lockdowns were implemented.

As many, including the most vulnerable who could not work remotely were let go the LDP provided lass than nothing.

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g01025/

Covid 19 certainly covered for enormous sums of corporate and crony welfare the world over. Some countries implementing austerity measures just before Covid were claiming not to have a money tree to the plebs who were seeing all public services in decay. Funny that.

People are quite rightly angry at this stupid waste of tax payers money but when faced with waste that makes this less than a drop in the ocean, seem not to care. A few million yen on pointless covid measures...anger, ¥350 BILLION on Tomahawk missiles that will also never be used..... silence.

five users in fiscal 2021 due to its inconvenient location.

Location is obviously the main problem there, resulting in only 5 users in 1 year. I bet someone's friend did all right from the deal though.

Also if they look like the one in the picture above, it doesn't look too inviting. Probably see more people teleworking at the local Starbucks.

Also if they look like the one in the picture above, it doesn't look too inviting. Probably see more people teleworking at the local Starbucks.

Also in Japan, when someone need to use some services, need to make reservation a week prior or even more. Instead just come and use it, which just make more inconvenient.

These grants have been misused since their inception. Remember the town in Ishikawa that built a 20m squid with Covid grants? It’s odd that the money is drying up for groups that actually used the money for covid support.

Japanese municipalities are increasingly being left to rethink the use of 

that’s usually the problem with anything involving local governments.

No one THINKS from the start, let alone “rethink” things.

they definitely don’t see the long term in anything, they are too busy looking back and wasting time with useless meetings

I said years ago the Japanese government was going to end up burning themselves by printing all that yen to pay for their whole Covid adventurism.

Silly bizarre coworking spaces, shots I apparently never needed to begin with because I have been fine without them since they came around and many which went totally unused, strict border measures that also starved the tourism industry for too long, and weird State of Emergencies that also ended up costing businesses lost revenue.

Now the yen is down and everybody who ran around screaming about Covid are to blame!

Sounds very romantic, such matchmaking at remote work facilities. I guess the overwhelming success stems from such 'ideas'. rofl

Mr KiplingToday  07:35 am JST

A few million yen on pointless covid measures...anger, ¥350 BILLION on Tomahawk missiles that will also never be used..... silence.

Weapons neednot be "used" to fulfill their purpose. To act as a deterence and prevent war.

Mr KiplingToday  07:35 am JST

People are quite rightly angry at this stupid waste of tax payers money but when faced with waste that makes this less than a drop in the ocean, seem not to care. A few million yen on pointless covid measures...anger, ¥350 BILLION on Tomahawk missiles that will also never be used..... silence.

A few million? You are obviously oblivious to the covid spending that triggered the global runaway inflation. We are not talking about millions or even billions, but much, much more.

Turn them into internet cafes with real cafes. Wrong locations are not useful.

That five users, per day? per month? per whole year? JGovt just really good in spending money.

Reread the article. 5 users. It's 100% clear!

Turn them into internet cafes with real cafes. Wrong locations are not useful

Think through what you wrote here. These locations were created with government funds, and turning them into private ventures, as the government can not "make" money would require private investment, and yet even in your statement, you openly admit that they are, or were not useful, due to the locations.

Now just who is going to need an internet cafe in inakaland? 1 customer a year perhaps? Total waste of money.

Yubaru

Turn them into internet cafes with real cafes. Wrong locations are not useful

> Think through what you wrote here

Out of 13 comments once again you select my comment.

There have been many government-funded businesses. I think they called it Section 3. I guess not all the facilities are in the wrong locations.

You seem to have some hang-up with "inakaland" Not mentioned in the article. Do you live in "inakaland"?

If the facilities cannot be repurposed and are not in demand by enough users then close them.

Japanese authorities fabricate optimistic but deceptive social atmosphere as if Covid19 was ended by drastically decreasing announcement about Covid19 on the excuse of virus downgrading last May, made pretext that can discontinue grants.

On the other hand, Japan's domestic Covid19 deaths at medical organization per year are increasing year by year, during also this "Golden Week", many medical workers are reporting increase of Covid19 patients through SNS.

But, Japan's press freedom index 70th major media report nothing about Covid19 cases and deaths, it spread misleading as if Covid19 ended toward society, it causes cases surge, and increase deaths including my acquaintance's family.

Well, was it necessary to begin with?

I mean, if you are working remotely, almost anywhere will do. You don't really need a specific place, except maybe for online meetings.

The above picture shows a empty room, it looks like a soulless room, is there any tea coffee making facilities? Cafe for a bit of food? If it's just a empty room who would want to sit and work there? No wonder it's empty. Is the internet connection very good or is it poor? Is the room cold or roasting hot ? All of these contributing factors could be responsible for a poor turn out, in the corporate world have bosses been demanding that staff turn up at the office?

I hope governments doing this was not the result of questionnaires given to people who use words like "van life" and "staycation". You know the kind of person you see in Starbucks with a Macbook pretending to work but actually looking at Instagram.

"Oh yes I'll definitely use a facility like that! Its just what new-fangled people like me want" etc. Then when it gets built, its "200 yen an hour? No way!!"

As for Covid spending, my business got a MaruKei unsecured loan that is interest free for three of the first 10 years. All I needed was a fall in revenue of something like 5%. I've paid a quarter back already, but I seriously doubt whether others will be paying theirs back. Its unsecured, so I cant see major problems if you didn't pay it back. The sum total of business loans will completely dwarf any spending on workspaces.

These grants have been misused since their inception. Remember the town in Ishikawa that built a 20m squid with Covid grants? It’s odd that the money is drying up for groups that actually used the money for covid support.

That squid is supposed to be a big success. The facility they put it at was new, so you can't really isolate its pull, but apparently tens of thousands of people have been to see it. This may not last, and it is a bit depressing, but s%#t that people can take selfies in front of may be a better use of tourism spending than one would otherwise assume.

In case you are worried, it did survive the Noto Earthquake.