Japan bank transfer mistake: money sent to invalid account but didn’t bounce back

Hi everyone, I’m wondering if anyone in has experienced something similar.

I accidentally transferred money from SBI Shinsei Bank to a wrong Yucho account number. At that time i remember it didn’t show automatically the recipient name, so i type manually and confirmed (stupid ik) The transfer status showed as “Sent,” so at the time I didn’t realize anything was wrong.

Later, the recipient told me they never received the money. When I tried entering the same account again to re-transfer, the system showed that the account does not exist.

What confuses me is that:

• I made the same mistake once in January (about ¥6,000)

• Then again on Feb 14 (about ¥36,000)

• Neither transfer bounced back automatically

• The status remained “Sent” with no refund

I’ve now contacted the bank and initiated a 組戻し (transfer reversal) request, but they said it can take about 2 weeks and depends on whether the receiving bank can confirm the situation.

The thing is; this yucho account doesn’t exist, so idk why yucho didn’t automatically sent back to me.

Has anyone experienced a transfer to a non-existent account in Japan where the money didn’t automatically return?

Would really appreciate hearing others’ experiences , especially timelines and whether the money eventually came back.

Thanks 🙏