Travel agency H.I.S. said Monday that the company received government employment adjustment subsidies inappropriately during the COVID-19 pandemic and that it will return part of them.
H.I.S. will return about ¥6.4 billion in subsidies, which were provided by the government to pandemic-hit companies to help them pay leave allowances to their workers.
The company said its employees had engaged in work-related activities, such as sending emails, in over 20% of its nonworking days that were eligible for the subsidies between March 2020 and December 2022.
It will return some ¥6.3 billion of the ¥24.3 billion it received during the period.
Subsidiary Number One Travel Shibuya fraudulently received around ¥100 million in such subsidies between March 2020 and March 2023 by counting some working days as nonworking days. Its president stepped down on Dec. 26.
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, H.I.S. CEO Motoshi Yada said the company had "lax controls" over matters related to employment adjustment subsidies.
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