Skip to main content

Bankrupt Hokkaido Athletics Association Accounting Fraud Uncovered After Non-Payment of JAAF Dues

Last week the Hokkaido Athletics Association revealed that it has not paid the JAAF ¥7.35 million [~$49,000 USD] it collected in membership fees and licensing of officials within the precfecture in 2022. The HAA said that due to a drop in income and rise in costs it had been forced to divert the funds to pay for other activities such as training camps, and that it has asked its member local athletics associations for further financial support.

According to the HAA, in the 2022 fiscal year it collected approximately ¥19 million [~$127,000 USD] in membership fees from roughly 11,600 people, including junior high school students, high school students, adults, and officials. A JAAF statement said that "members will not be held responsible" for the situation, and that their 2022 results would still be accepted as valid despite the prefectural association's non-payment of their membership fees to the national organization.

The HAA has operated at a loss for the last 10 years and has continued its activities by drawing upon its existing savings, which in the 2012 fiscal year were around ¥70 million [~$467,000 USD]. In fiscal 2018 it used up the last remaining portion, roughly ¥15 million [~$100,000 USD], and from 2019 to 2022 utilized fraudulent accounting to make it look like it still had that ¥15 million in reserve. This accounting fraud was discovered after the JAAF insisted that the HAA pay the registration fees it had collected.

As a result of the HAA's financial problems, the JAAF is looking at canceling the Nambu Memorial Meet, one of the country's top-level track meets, as well as training camps geared toward development at the junior high school level. A spokesperson for the HAA commented, "We would like to review our financial management practices."

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...
2 comments
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Shikama and Njeri Win Sendai International Half Marathon

Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the Sendai International Half Marathon Sunday in Sendai, Shikama in 1:01:31 and Njeri in 1:09:20. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) was the top Japanese woman at 2nd overall. The men's race went through 5 km in 14:34 and 10 km in 29:22. Shikama ran alongside top competition including Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.), who has been running well in half marathons this season, and Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Naoki Koyama (Honda). On a course with many small ups and downs, Shikama attacked on a downhill just after 15 km, quickly breaking free of the lead group of 7. 13 seconds up by 20 km, Shikama covered the last 1.0975 km in 3:06 to seal his first Sendai title. A graduate of Juntendo University , Shikama is in his 4th season with Logisteed. At the 2024 National Corporate Half Marathon he ran 1:00:41, and at last year's East Japan Corporate Ekiden he won the Third Stage. In his marathon d...
Post a Comment
Read more