How I lost a small fortune when HIT travel went bankrupt

Today there is a honeymoon related anniversary in Japan. Reading about it instantly made me recall my own honeymoon and how we ended up in Saipan rather than in Italy as first planned. Not only planned but booked and paid for in full. 

But we never got to go, and we lost all the money we had spent on the trip. I have purposefully blocked out the amount of money we lost as a coping mechanism, but it was thousands. We had planned a once-in-a-lifetime trip, to hit up all the gorgeous locations in Italy we wanted to visit, through a travel agency called "HIT Travel".

Shortly before we were due to leave on our honeymoon, we got a letter - not a phone call - to say that our trip had been completely cancelled. All the flights, all the hotels, all the activities - completely cancelled. Moreover, it stated that we would not be compensated as the company had gone bankrupt. 

We were not provided with any phone number to contact or sufficient information. We pursued a claim, and to add insult to injury, we eventually got 1200 yen back. That was it. 1200 yen. Which wasn't even a percentage of what we had paid. But there was nothing else we could do and there was no way we were going to get any more money back, so we just had to let it go. 

Last minute, we booked a short trip to Saipan and thankfully still had a wonderful honeymoon. The photo is a sunset view from our hotel room.

Have you ever lost money in Japan through a company going bankrupt? If so, were you able to get any money back through a claim or other method?