So I live in Germany, but I have a friend in Japan that I chat with on LINE (a messaging app) once a while. She’s a single mother of three and works hard for her family. She now has a part-time job (while also delivering newspapers too), but about little over half a year ago, she was indicating that she has money troubles and already cut back on food expenses, and is unable to pay all of her utilities bills. Back then I knew her for a while and I was of course willing to help. So in total, I send her about 300ish euros via PayPal (in Yen). She assured me she was going to pay it back. But knowing before about her financial situation and that she has no savings and three teenagers to care for, I knew that she wasn’t able to pay it back, and I also never wanted the money back too, as that was around Christmas time so I saw it as a gift to her. She also mentioned she had an American friend who gave her about 100 euros (converted) as well.
Now, at that time, she was not having a part-time job (and only delivered newspapers), and she and her family were on welfare payments. Here in my country, giving money to a person on welfare is not a crime for the donor. However the recipient has to inform the social security agency here in charge of handling welfare payments about the amount received (there is an exempt amount but that’s like 50ish euros I think), and the agency will subtract the amount received from future welfare payments until the money that was received has been accounted for. So potentially, a person on welfare here that got a sum of say 1000 euros will get their monthly welfare payments cut until those 1000 euros are used up by the recioient, and then the state will pay the full regular amount again. It does make sense, you can’t live off of welfare payments but receive large amounts of money from friends and family each month, since welfare is only meant to be a subsistence level of existence. In any case, if the recipient fails to inform the agency (and they will find out anyways about all non-cash payments, since they’re allowed to look into your bank account), they might cut your welfare or even sue the recipient for welfare fraud. It’s important to mention here that the one giving the money to the welfare recipient doesn’t have to fear repercussions, the duty to inform the agency rests solely on the welfare recipient.
Now that’s the situation in my country. I assume it was different in Japan though, since my friend wouldn’t ask for money if she knew that the social security agency in Japan was just going to cut her monthly payments like in my country, because then asking for money in the first place would be pointless. Which finally brings me to the reason I am making this post. Today she messaged me on LINE again, saying that regarding the payments on PayPal, she was having trouble (I only know very basic Japanese, but her exact words were (with regards to my PayPal payments) “そのことで困っています”). She wanted me to write a letter and send it to her address in Japan. The letter should say that she paid back all the money that I gave to her. Now, that shocked me as I assumed that she somehow did get in trouble with the social security agency in Japan, who perhaps threatened to reduce her payments. As of now, that is all the information that I currently have, I’ve replied to her and asked for her to explain her situation in detail, but she’s at work now so the reply may take a while. I also got scared that I unwillingly commited a crime as well, even though I was just trying to help out a friend. But I also don’t want to lie about having gotten back then money in a letter that she might show off to official agencies in Japan, because that’s also just wrong to do, so writing that letter is out of the question. All in all, I’m scared (for myself and her too) and confused, hoping that someone who can speak Japanese fluently or has Japanese legal expertise might be able to find out the legality of sending money to a Japanese welfare recipient. Thank you.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vo9o2w/worried_and_urgently_need_advice_about_welfare/
6 comments
I just did a quick search on this, and found that Japan is similar to your country. People on welfare have to report all income to their local caseworker. This is the site where I got this info from – a sort of public forum that is popular in Japan. This means the information here could well be incorrect, but it sounds correct to me. Also it depends on what kind of “welfare” your friend is receiving. There are various types of assistance available in Japan (unemployment, welfare, etc…) so there may be different rules depending on exactly what she is receiving.
https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/11600516.html
Though I’m not legal expert, I checked some articles about walfare regulations and can tell that the walfare regulations of Japan is pretty much the same with that of Germany. So, you would have zero repercussions in regards to your sending money and all the responsibility is the recipient.
Not sure in this case, but whether neglection of declarating debt from ones will be criminal case or not is depending on how big the amount is. Again, I am not an expert so this is my assumption. This case could be light incident if she just tell the welfare agency truth(if she did not have any debt from others).
I think you should not write the letter that you got your money back because the walfare agency will find out it is lie by checking her PayPal or bank account. (She cannot prove the remittance).
Hope this helps you even a little.
TBH it sounds like you’re being scammed.
https://jref.com/threads/missing-fiancé.60309/
Read the whole thread.
> regarding the payments on PayPal, she was having trouble (I only know very basic Japanese, but her exact words were (with regards to my PayPal payments) “そのことで困っています”).
Whatever it’s worth, with Paypal or anything else, even the smallest amount of money coming in from overseas is questioned. Paypal, Transferwise, traditional banks — none of them will allow recipients to receive money without documentation proving their name and address, and (these days) their taxpayer identifier number.
I don’t know if that data is shared with the welfare departments, but the government absolutely knows that she received the money.
So, an update for now, as I got a reply from her.
First off, thanks for the kind individuals who gave me very helpful replies. I am at least glad that I won’t get in trouble for all of this (hopefully).
1.) I’m not being scammed, I know her for over two years, I know her story is real, and I’m in no way, shape, or form romantically involved with her, as implied by some comments here. I’m just a friend who helped her out with a one-time gift. Because I knew she wasn’t able to pay that back (due to having no savings) in a million years, I made it clear it was meant as a gift to her. She also did not beg for any amount of money, it was my own choice to give to her, and choose how much to give.
2.) She is indeed on 活保護費. She mentioned that once a year, due to being on welfare (at the time), she has to go to the city hall and show them her bank account and other financial accounts, which she apparently did.
3.) She still wants me to write that letter. In her words: “あなたは私からお金を返金されました。と書いて手紙で私に送ってください”. I have not replied to her yet, but I will of course decline. I won’t send a letter lying that I got the money back.
4.) I need some assistance with a translation. This is something she wrote to me (my name replaced by “OP”): “私はOPからお金をもらいました。だから私はあなたにお金を返したと言わないといけませんでした”. That second sentence, did she mean she told ME about this money return situation, or tell the government welfare agency about it already? Because if she told the welfare agency that she already returned the money, she flat out lied to them, and I don’t want to get involved in some welfare scam, when all I wanted to do was to help out a friend in dire need, in good faith. EDIT: I asked her, and she did admit to lying to the agency. I will try to convince her to go there again and tell them the truth.