Skip to main content

Komazawa Park Administrator Caught Embezzling ¥12 Million in Usage Fees

 

On Sept. 6 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Lifestyle, Culture and Sports Bureau and Sports Benefits Corporation announced the discovery that income at the Komazawa Olympic Park Sports Complex such as facility usage fees had been embezzled. The theft of funds was committed by an employee of the Tokyo Sports Benefits Corporation, the organization that administers the park and its facilities.

Between June, 2021 and July, 2023, a contract employee at O-Ence Ltd., a subsidiary of the Corporation, embezzled facility usage fees which the employee was tasked with handling. The employee stole roughly 12,000,000 yen [~$81,000 USD] by making transfers to the employee's personal account and withdrawing cash from the company's account. Facility usage fees are classified as the income of the administering organization, so no direct harm to park and facility users of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government occurred as a result of the embezzlement. The employee and O-Ence have already repaid in full the amount that had been stolen.

The incident came to light in July this year when the Corporation became suspicious that an O-Ence employee was embezzling usage fees and reported it to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. They questioned the employee and implemented emergency measures at Komazawa Park to prevent future incidents of the same kind. The employee's acts fall under the criminal category of embezzlement in the course of business, and the Corporation has consulted with the police to submit charges and ensure that the employee be punished. The employee was fired by O-Ence on Aug. 29.

Translator's note: Although Komazawa Park is adjacent to the main campus of Komazawa University, it is not part of the university and the university's national champion ekiden team does not train at the track in the park.


Comments

Most-Read This Week

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading