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The story
A 45-year-old female section chief in Yokosuka City was fired for misconduct after having an acquaintance doctor write her a fake medical certificate, fraudulently taking 10 days of sick leave, and going on an overseas trip during that time. The case came to light when her supervisor happened to spot her at a train station while she was supposedly on sick leave; she initially insisted “I really was sick.” The thread’s discussion grew from a simple “couldn’t she have just used paid vacation?” into the institutional differences between sick leave and paid leave, and even the criminal referral of the doctor who wrote the fake certificate — with many commenters also doubting whether the “chance” discovery was really a coincidence.</parameter>
<parameter name="analysis">Unlike paid leave, sick leave for local government employees in Japan can’t be taken for just any reason — it’s technically only granted on the basis of a medical certificate, and in practice taking it doesn’t hurt bonus evaluations as much even once the day count passes a certain threshold. The thread split between those who saw this as “a workplace culture that makes it hard to take paid leave” and those who called it “straight-up fraud — drawing a salary on fake sick leave” — with the latter view dominating. Many commenters also suggested the boss may not have spotted her by pure chance but was already suspicious and looking into it, hinting there may have been warning signs beforehand rather than a single chance sighting. It’s also worth noting — a detail easy to miss in the main article — that the doctor was separately referred to prosecutors for writing the false certificate, so the fallout extends well beyond just her dismissal.
On the 30th, Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture dismissed a 45-year-old female section chief from its Welfare and Children’s Affairs Department for misconduct, after she had an acquaintance doctor draw up a false medical certificate so she could go on an overseas trip, fraudulently took 10 days of sick leave, and collected her salary for that period. The city also filed a criminal complaint against the doctor on the 28th, citing a suspected violation of the Medical Practitioners’ Act.
According to the announcement, the section chief fraudulently took sick leave from June 7 to 16, during which she also received roughly ¥104,000 in salary. Her supervisor spotted her at a train station when she was supposed to be on sick leave, and questioned her after she returned from her trip, but she repeatedly insisted “I really was sick.” When the city checked with the clinic and doctor, there was no record of her ever being examined. She reportedly said, “I couldn’t bring myself to tell my workplace I was taking paid leave to go on a trip.”
Yomiuri Shimbun
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Probably one of those workplaces where you get talked about behind your back for using paid leave to go on a trip.
There's no reason to be stingy about it, and if she'd used it all up, she wouldn't have phrased it as "couldn't bring myself to say it." Thinking about it normally, it should come down to what Re: #21 says.
Guess her severance pay is gone too, huh.
Actually, since she's already been dismissed for misconduct, that counts as "social punishment already served," so she basically gets treated as innocent and
still gets her full severance pay.
It's garbage logic, but that's how it works.
Whether she's actually suffered social punishment or not doesn't even factor in.
I think the bigger issue is that she dragged a doctor into it.
The boss of the Ōmi-ikka (a real-life yakuza family) reportedly tried this same trick to dodge prison time.
It's a special version of paid leave —
a version where your paid-leave days don't get used up as long as you have a medical certificate.
It's paid, but if you take too many days your bonus gets docked.
You need a medical certificate to take it.
She was drawing a salary on sick leave, so that's just an excuse.
Paid leave? What's that?
Does this doctor get off scot-free? lol
Read the article more carefully.
He's been criminally referred to prosecutors.
The city probably can't directly punish a doctor itself.
It says right there he was criminally referred to prosecutors.
I think a workplace environment that won't let you use paid leave is a problem too.
As a civil servant, she should've been able to take paid leave without issue.
Maybe she wanted to save up her paid leave and take sick leave instead?
And yet there's no such thing as a workplace where sick leave is easy to take.
"You can't take paid leave without giving a reason, but you can take sick leave that needs a medical certificate just by faking one" — that's messed up in its own way.
Nah, he can't just let that slide lol
Totally agree —
or maybe she was always taking sick leave
and had already been flagged as suspicious, one or the other.
He just couldn't forgive an employee pulling something this outrageous.
but that's not a crime.
It's fine if it's filed under paid leave. But fraudulently taking it under the sick-leave category counts as illegally obtaining salary, and for civil servants that's an instant dismissal for misconduct.
Civil servants get hit hard for this kind of cheating. The punishment is basically a foregone conclusion.
There's no way he "just happened" to see her at the station.
She must've already been under suspicion and watched, or followed.
I also think it's possible it wasn't just a coincidence.
That's exactly what I thought lol
Did he use his own paid leave to stake out her local station?
That's some serious dedication.
Though I do think it's a workplace with a real labor-law issue around paid leave being hard to use.
Maybe whoever found her was in love with her —
like an ex-boyfriend chasing her down to try to get back together or something.
Apparently you're not supposed to blame someone for going out to have fun just because their depression keeps them from coming to work.
As a coworker though, I can't accept that.
I ran into a coworker who was on leave for depression at Comiket (Japan's huge fan-comics convention).
He'd fully made his own doujinshi and was there running his own circle booth.
These days employers aren't even supposed to ask the reason for paid leave, you know.
If it were paid leave, no problem at all. She was fired because she used a fake medical certificate to get sick leave.
Is something about that confusing??
The fact that the workplace creates an atmosphere where you can't take paid leave makes it a shady employer.
Well, if he's still got his medical license, he's got other job prospects.
People like this usually max out their paid leave too.
She was probably the type trying to max out sick leave as well, which is likely why she'd already been flagged.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Kanagawa] “Couldn’t bring myself to say I was going on a trip with paid leave…” Civil servant fired after fraudulently taking sick leave for an overseas trip, caught when boss spotted her at the station.”
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