The Shimane Prefectural Government headquarters is seen in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kazuhisa Soneda)
MATSUE — Shimane Prefecture announced on June 6 that an error in its application for a national government subsidy program led to around 17.82 million yen (roughly $123,000) not being granted.
According to the prefectural government, the mistake occurred during the application process for the “Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation” subsidy. The system is designed so that the national government covers half of actual expenses.
While the prefectural government should have written the actual expense amount of 35,691,000 yen ($246,300) as “35691000,” the staff member in charge mistakenly thought the form required an entry in thousands of yen and wrote “35691” instead. As a result, the prefecture received only about 18,000 yen ($124) instead of the intended 17.84 million yen.
The department in charge discovered the mistake June 2 and asked the national government for an additional payment, but the request was apparently denied. The prefecture offered an apology and said it “will implement double-checks of numerical entries at each stage to prevent a recurrence in the future.”
(Japanese original by Tatsuo Murase, Matsue Bureau)
AloJapan.com