The city of Osaka has filed a criminal complaint against the operating company of Kizuna Holdings (HD), which had been subject to administrative sanctions for fraudulently receiving approximately 15 billion Yen in disability employment support benefits. As of May 1st 2026, Osaka city has also revoked the designation of the company’s facilities.
The Japanese tabloid magazine ‘FRIDAY’ has been investigating misuse of the ‘Help Mark’, which was designed to help people with disabilities alert people of possible needs they might have.
Tokyo police have re-arrested two men, including the alleged leader of a group accused of exploiting a dating app aimed at people with disabilities, in what investigators describe as a systematic fraud scheme targeting vulnerable users. The suspects are accused of luring victims, such as a man in his 30s, to bars in Shibuya after meeting them on the app, then falsely claiming losses like canceled reservations to demand large “compensation” payments, in one case about ¥4.7 million.
A district court in southwestern Japan on Thursday 23rd April dismissed a damages claim by people with disabilities who said that the unmanned operations of stations by Kyushu Railway Co., or JR Kyushu, violated their freedom of movement. “It cannot be acknowledged that there was unfair and discriminatory treatment” on the grounds of disability in operating stations without staff, Oita District Court Presiding Judge Mina Tomita said, rejecting the claim for damages totaling 660,000 yen against JR Kyushu.
In a retrial at the Fukuoka District Court on the 20th, Presiding Judge Shinichi Suzushima sentenced a 44-year-old male radiological technologist to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.The man had been charged with quasi-forcible indecency for touching the chest of a female student with intellectual disabilities during a 2018 medical check-up at a high school in Fukuoka Prefecture. Judge Suzushima upheld the credibility of the student’s testimony, describing the act as a “despicable crime that exploited his professional position.”
“Kizuna Holdings hasn’t suffered any damage, but we are the ones struggling. They are the embodiment of insincerity…When I look for new work, I’m often asked, ‘Where did you work before?’ When I tell them it was a Kizuna Holdings facility, they say, ‘Oh, there. That means you were complicit in the crime. You’re an accomplice,’ and then tell me not to come back. But the one truly in the wrong is Kizuna Holdings, the users are the victims.”
Japan’s health ministry decided on Wednesday to lift restrictions on organ donations from individuals who have stayed in Europe, a measure introduced to combat variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The change is expected to take effect as early as this autumn.
A Japanese government survey in 2025 published on Tuesday 14th April showed that 4.5 pct of respondents in the country often or constantly feel lonely, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous year. The share of people who often or constantly feel lonely was higher in their 30s to 50s. The survey, conducted by the Cabinet Office in December, found that 13.7 pct said they sometimes feel lonely and 19.5 pct said they have lonely feelings once in a while.
Masamichi Sone, the representative of a company operating facilities such as “Rapport” in Nishi Ward, Sapporo, has been arrested and referred to prosecutors. Sone is suspected of repeatedly submitting false applications to Sapporo City between 2022 and 2025, claiming to have provided employment support services for persons with disabilities despite not having appointed a qualified managing supervisor as required. He allegedly defrauded the city of approximately ¥35 million in benefit payments.
Tokyo’s Toshima Ward announced on the 10th that it has revoked the designation of the childcare support service “Aton Juku – Child Development Support and After-School Day Service for Children Living with Sign Language,” after it was found to have fraudulently received approximately 58.3 million yen in benefits by concealing a staff shortage. The revocation will take effect from July 1.
Barrier Free Japan