Children go to the city The declining town has passed the magical power of hometown tax payment July 29, 11:53

There is a town that suddenly disappeared from the popularity ranking of hometown tax refunds.

As a successful example, the town, which had been visited one after another from all over the country, is no longer able to collect donations of 1 yen.


(Kochi Broadcasting Station reporter Hiraku Tanaka)

Children go out to the city

The name of the town facing the Pacific Ocean in the eastern part of Kochi Prefecture is also recorded in "Tosa Diary".



It has been known as a port town for a long time, such as introducing that Ki no Tsurayuki stayed on the way back to the capital, saying, "Kefu does not stop at this Naha no Tomari."

Nahari Town, Kochi Prefecture.

The population is about 3000.



In the 1960s, when the tuna fishery developed in the open sea, the town was lively with lodgings and snacks where fishermen could rest.



However, when the tuna fishing boat moves its base outside the prefecture, it becomes quiet.



The mayor looks back on the history of the town.

Mayor Takezaki


"A countryside like ours is a typical declining region. Even with the branding of fruits, vegetables and rice, none of them have taken root. Children are raised locally until high school, After that, I go to the city. The aging of the population doesn't stop. It's like waiting for the local allocation tax from the country. "

Hometown tax payment

It was the entry into the hometown tax system that began 13 years ago (2008) when the name of Nahari Town became known all over the country at once.



Furusato tax payment is a system in which residence tax is deducted when you donate to the local government of your choice.



By having people who grow up in rural areas and work in the city donate to "Furusato", it is expected that the tax will be distributed from the metropolitan area where the population and tax revenue are concentrated to the local cities.

When the operation started under the political initiative of the current Prime Minister Suga, who was the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications at that time, local governments in each region entered the system to compete.



Nahari Town also adopted it immediately in anticipation of the effect of the system.



In fact, there were no gifts such as special products that are now commonplace, and the local government received donations in good faith.



Nahari Town also collected only 13 donations in the first year.



In an attempt to increase the number of people who donate, the town will introduce a reward system.



We have delivered local products such as splendid alfonsino, rice, vegetables, and pork all over the country.

Then, the donation amount gradually increased.

Seven years after its entry, it was the first municipality in Shikoku to exceed 1 billion yen annually.



The town is launching new strategies one after another.



It is a site that introduces the gifts of the town at that time.

"Dokan and 5.7 kg! Chewy texture Nahari Yuzu pork"



"Domestic beef cut off special 2.5 kg"

We have also devised ways to sell things such as Thanksgiving and time sales, and how to make them look “shining”, attracting people who visit the hometown tax introduction site.



One of the biggest hits was the "regular flight," in which products are delivered many times throughout the year with a single donation.



Many people apply for hometown tax payment at the end of the year.



However, if you concentrate on donations at the end of the year, you will receive a large number of gifts at once at the beginning of the year, and the refrigerator will fill up.

Therefore, even at the end of the year, Nahari Town wanted to make the donations a "regular flight" that delivers the returned goods in a distributed manner so that people could feel the excitement of "what will arrive this month".



It was a system of two birds with one stone that could disperse the busyness of businesses and towns related to gifts.

With the keywords of "discrimination," "added value," "excitement and excitement," "video distribution," and "branding," we think about how to make people who donate feel closer to Nahari Town and make them happy. We involved the local people involved in the processing and processing.



The staff in charge of the town at that time expressed their enthusiasm in this way.

"For Nahari Town, this is the only hometown tax payment. I want to cling to this and change the whole town. I'm doing it with that intent. I have a feeling that I can't lose. "

Hometown tax experts were also paying attention to the town's efforts.

Associate Professor Takaaki Hoda, Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University


"The staff were also extremely talented businessmen. Only during certain weekends, they were also engaged in innovative initiatives such as flash marketing, which offers great deals. . The pubs that are about to collapse are also brought back to life by paying taxes, finding a way to live, and aunts in their 80s are working lively. Nahanri Town is one of the few local governments that focused on making their own special products. did"

All of the town's strategies were right, and in 2017, the amount of donations reached 3.9 billion yen, the ninth highest in the country.



Around this time, the talent Blouson Chiemi was all the rage on TV.



It is said that at the izakaya in the town, the mayor of Nahari Town at that time imitated this and turned around and shouted "3.9 billion!".



It was a moment that reminded me of the vibrancy that the pelagic fishery once brought.



From local governments all over the country, staff in charge of hometown tax payment visited one after another.

Town executive


"No matter where I go, Nahari is praised very much. He had a high nose."

The donation for hometown tax payment was 13 times the tax revenue of Nahari Town.

Town disappeared from the ranking

March last year, the 13th year since Nahari Town entered the system.



The reward "business", which was the most important business of the town, suddenly stopped.



The reason was the arrest of a former employee who was in charge of hometown tax payment.



He was re-arrested and prosecuted after finding out that he had received about 93.7 million yen from a business operator handling gifts and relatives.

In the wake of this arrest, the injustices of the town were revealed one after another.



It was discovered that the documents submitted to the government to receive the designation of the hometown tax system were false and the return goods standard was repeatedly violated.



In many cases, the ratio of funds spent on procuring gifts to the donation amount, called the "return ratio," exceeds 50% of the donation amount, and in some cases, the maximum is 192%, which exceeds the donation amount. There was also a gift.



It was also found that they offered gifts other than local products such as "eel kabayaki" and "kamaage shirasu".

Last July, Nahari Town was revoked from the designation of a local government subject to hometown tax payment.



The period is two years until July next year, and the town still cannot collect donations of 1 yen.



The donation collected by Nahari Town, which has a population of 3,000, through hometown tax payment is 11,778 million yen.



However, most of it was used as a gift, leaving only about 1.6 billion yen in the town.

Magical power of hometown tax payment

During a year and a half of interviews with Nahari Town, which was at the mercy of the hometown tax system, I heard the word "hometown tax magic" many times.



Nahari Town, which was hardly known nationwide, became a front runner for hometown tax payment, and became dependent on the gift-giving business, and both the town and people lost their composure.



The destination was the arrest of an employee and the discovery of fraud in the town.

Based on the reports of the third-party committee, the town did not change the staff in charge for many years, trusted the staff too much and left it to them, and could not share information within the organization. We analyzed that the root cause was that the compliance with laws and regulations was not thoroughly enforced.



Nevertheless, Nahari Town is currently preparing to return to its hometown tax system.



It is said that it plans to improve transparency by setting up a committee that includes third parties from the stage of selecting reward items, and to establish a mechanism to prevent fraud.



One of the staff members said with enthusiasm, "We will start from a completely blank stage," while "Furusato tax payment is, after all, online shopping led by local governments. "Is it possible for Nahari to compete after returning?", He said, and he was anxious about putting himself in "competition" again.



Due to the demand for corona stagnation, the popularity of gifts has not declined.



Associate Professor Takaaki Yasuda of Kobe University Graduate School, who is familiar with hometown tax payment, points out that there is something to be learned from the experience of Nahari Town.

Associate Professor Yasuda


"If you put out meat, rice, crab, and eel, donations will come in naturally, but these will moisturize the business, but the ripple effect will be poor and other businesses will not grow.



For example, influential If there is a good business, if the local government depends on it, there will be adhesions. I think that is the lesson of Nahanri Town. For that purpose, the business that earned a certain amount of money for a certain number of years will be expelled from the market. I think we need a mechanism. The



other is to set an upper limit on the amount of money that local governments can collect. I don't think it was absolutely necessary for a town with a population size like Nahanri to collect more than 10 billion yen. at the moment of collected above, since would have fallen to stop thinking as a town, permanently rather than local government of lack of resources is to use as subsidies, in terms of investment it is important.



to re-discover the strengths of the region " It is important to use it to create a sustainable area that extends the "healthy lifespan of local governments". "

A town that experienced the light and shadow of hometown tax payment.



I would like to continue to cover whether the lessons learned will be applied to other local governments participating in the system.

Kochi Broadcasting Station reporter Hiraku


Tanaka


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