Below is the English translation of the article:
“【内部告発】パーソルキャリアの大規模不正疑惑 失踪したHiproTech責任者の野村鉄平氏と、架空の顧問弁護士とカスタマーサポートを名乗る不審者たち”
originally published on April 4, 2025 by Inclusive Solutions LLC.
This English version is intended for overseas readers, including international investors, members of the PERSOL Group, and individuals involved in HR and compliance.
If you find any mistranslations or inaccuracies, please contact us.
The Japanese original is available on our official website.
April 1, 2025, 21:13 — Inquiry to IT Freelance Support Organization → Rapid development
PERSOL Career had been ignoring our serious inquiry:
“Are you unilaterally sending invoices to clients while refusing to address the doubts regarding your company’s potentially illegal actions, thereby turning clients into unintentional accomplices?”
Since no response came from any official contact points, at 21:13 on April 1, 2025, we decided to contact the “IT Freelance Support Organization,” where Mr. Teppei Nomura (General Manager of HiproTech Division, PERSOL CAREER) serves as a board member.
Reason:
PERSOL Career was completely silent as a company, and there was no other channel to reach Mr. Nomura.
(Email screenshots omitted in this translation)
April 2, 13:36 — Instead of PERSOL Career’s legal department, a reply arrives from “Customer Support”
The next day, after many days of silence, PERSOL Career suddenly moved.
At 13:36 on April 2, an email came to us from someone claiming to be from “PERSOL Career Contact Center.”
The email stated:
- “We have confirmed that there is no illegality in our actions.”
- “The content on your website includes our confidential information and employee personal information. Please delete it immediately.”
However, the email:
- Did not include the sender’s name,
- Did not address any of our questions,
- Did not follow basic business email manners,
- Showed no legal reasoning.
We found this much extremely suspicious.
Therefore we forwarded it to all project members, including Mr. Nomura.
A “different person” claiming to be from HiproTech Customer Center suddenly appears
At 19:03 on April 2, a completely different person emailed us, claiming to be from “HiproTech Customer Center.”
This message stated:
- “Please do not contact our employees or customers from now on.”
- “From now on, our attorney will respond to you.”
- “As repeated before, we believe there is no illegality.”
However, this raised further doubts:
■ Reasons of doubts:
- We have a direct contract with the end client, so PERSOL Career has no authority to prohibit communication.
- The cleanup process regarding confidential data was still ongoing; stopping communication would harm the client.
- The article we originally published contains only publicly available information; the accusation of “confidential information leakage” is baseless.
- If they believe our publication is illegal, they should immediately file a legal complaint instead of sending anonymous emails.
The behavior only strengthened our suspicion that:
“These customer centers” may be merely acting to obscure responsibility and buy time.
We requested that PERSOL Career appoint their attorney immediately
We replied to project members explaining the situation and also sent the following message to Mr. Nomura:
- “Since you said the attorney will contact us, please provide the attorney’s name to us immediately.”
- “We will wait 24 hours.”
- “If you disclose the attorney’s name, we will modify the article accordingly.”
- “If not, we will publish all communication records.”
We additionally asked:
- “Does the attorney agree with the claim that our article contains illegal personal information?”
- “If yes, please provide the legal basis and specific text.”
We clearly stated that this was PERSOL’s “last chance for negotiation.”
April 3, 21:00 — No reply. What was the meaning of ‘the attorney will contact you’?
We waited until the deadline: 20:00 on April 3, 2025.
There was no contact from PERSOL Career or their attorney.
We reported this fact to all project members.
This situation raises serious questions:
- Was the “attorney will contact you” message a bluff?
- Did the customer center act without coordination from legal or management?
- Why does PERSOL Career refuse to disclose its attorney’s name?
The contradiction between their words and actions are increasing concerns regarding governance.
If a company uses the word “lawyer” only as intimidation, they are not qualified to act as intermediaries
The series of actions by PERSOL Career’s HiproTech Division shows serious problems:
- Anonymous “customer support” continually sends messages
- They promised to let the attorney respond but never did
- They invoked terms like “personal information” and “confidential information” without any legal basis to pressure us into deleting factual statements
If the statement “our attorney will respond” was merely a bluff,
then this constitutes a serious compliance violation and raises concerns regarding corporate credibility.
Conclusion
Our company will not yield to unjust pressure.
We will continue to publish factual and socially important information.
The essence of data work is to deliver necessary information to the right place and improve transparency within organizations and society.
This is our mission as a data strategy company.
The most shocking fact is that Mr. Teppei Nomura is still missing.
PERSOL Career must clearly explain who sent these suspicious “customer center” emails.
May 12, 2025 — Postscript
PERSOL Career—including Mr. Nomura—has continued ignoring the issue.
We have proceeded with reporting this case as a social problem.
This case has already been reported to the Tokyo Bar Association as a potential violation of the Attorney Act, due to allegations of misusing the name of a non-existent attorney.
PERSOL Career’s legal department must explain why this situation was not prevented.