Yamaguchi Prefecture Revokes Designation of Employment Support Facility for People with Disabilities Over Fraudulent Benefit Claims

From 47 News

September 11 2026

YAMAGUCHI – A non-profit organization (NPO) based in Yamaguchi City has fraudulently received at least approximately 19.43 million yen in benefit payments from four municipalities, including Yamaguchi City, without employing a “service management supervisor” as required by the Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities Act. The disciplinary action was decided on the 10th and takes effect on September 29th.

The sanctioned entity is the NPO “felice,” which operated the employment support facility “Ayu no Sato” in the Yoshiki-Sahata district of Yamaguchi City. According to the prefecture’s Division for Support for Persons with Disabilities, although the organization had not employed a service management supervisor—responsible for creating support plans for users: since July 2024, it fraudulently claimed and received employment training service benefits from the cities of Yamaguchi, Ube, Mine, and Sanyo-Onoda between September 2024 and June of this year. Furthermore, during prefectural operational guidance and audits, the organization falsely reported that the period without such a supervisor began on or after April 1 of this year.