Japan firefighter punished for YouTube side hustle | Inquirer Technology

Japan firefighter punished for YouTube side hustle

/ 03:50 PM January 12, 2022

Japan firefighter punished for YouTube side hustle

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Tokyo, Japan A Japanese firefighter moonlighting as a gaming YouTuber had cold water poured on his career by public officials, who uncovered the secret side hustle by identifying his voice in the lucrative videos.

An anonymous tip-off prompted Wakayama city in western Japan to launch an investigation into the 33-year-old’s channel, which had around 15,000 subscribers.

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But because the firefighter never appeared on screen, a local official had to painstakingly comb through the clips for vocal clues to his identity, the city said.

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The man’s salary was cut in punishment for contravening a law limiting public workers’ engagement in commercial activities.

Over a 10-month period he had uploaded more than 300 videos, typically showing him playing multi-player strategy games racking up around 1.15 million yen ($9,970) in advertising revenue.

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“We don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing that he was a YouTuber,” city official Hidetaka Amano told AFP on Wednesday.

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“But it’s the fact he was profiting from ads, some of which could be inappropriate in nature.”

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His actions, Amano said, had “betrayed the trust of residents in Wakayama.”

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TOPICS: Employment, Japan, Youtube
TAGS: Employment, Japan, Youtube

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