KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 12 — A fireman in Japan had his salary cut after his side hustle as a gaming YouTuber got discovered.
Authorities launched an investigation into the unidentified 33-year-old fireman at Wakayama city in western Japan following an anonymous tip-off, AFP reported.
Initially, authorities had difficulties identifying the man as he never appeared on screen, forcing officials to painstakingly comb through the clips for vocal clues to his identity.
After his identity was confirmed, the firefighter’s salary was cut although it was unclear what was the amount, in punishment for contravening a law limiting public workers’ engagement in commercial activities.
According to the news agency, the man, who has 15,000 subscribers to his channel, had uploaded more than 300 videos, typically showing him playing multi-player strategy games — racking up around 1.15 million yen (RM41,711) in advertising revenue over a 10-month period.
“We don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing that he was a YouTuber,” city official Hidetaka Amano told the agency.
“But it’s the fact he was profiting from ads, some of which could be inappropriate in nature.”
His actions had “betrayed the trust of residents in Wakayama”, the city official added.
