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."
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