Japanese officials are stepping up efforts to tackle an increasing number of cases of fraud involving coronavirus-related subsidies.

Japan's government is providing subsidies of up to 19,000 dollars to small and medium-sized companies and up to 9,500 dollars for freelancers and other self-employed people whose earnings have dropped sharply due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tokyo police have arrested 14 people suspected of being involved in fraudulent business practices carried out by Japan Life, a failed health equipment dealer.

Those arrested include the 78-year-old former chairman of the company, Yamaguchi Takayoshi.

Japan's e-money services have been under the spotlight after criminals used them to steal from bank accounts. Now officials say fraudulent withdrawals have expanded to another five payment firms.

Sources say one of them is PayPay, a subsidiary of mobile phone operator SoftBank. They say criminals used its services to make improper withdrawals from Japan Post Bank totaling 1.4 million yen, or about 13,400 dollars.

NHK has learned that 34 users of the e-money service of mobile carrier NTT Docomo have had a total of 10 million yen, or over 94 thousand dollars, illicitly withdrawn from their bank accounts as of Wednesday.

NTT Docomo says it will enter discussions on compensating the victims with the banks in question.

Mitsubishi rejected allegations of German authorities saying it committed fraud by using illegal software on certain diesel models.