Trigger and Motivation to Participate in Hometown Tax in the Japanese Market
Japanese local governments are allowed to raise fund through unique system, called “hometown tax”. I have conducted an empirical research of hometown tax cases to examine the factors affecting the amount of fund provided by individuals, their triggers and motivations. There are three major findings. First, the average amount of fund provided is higher by those who have some relationships or connections to local towns. Second, those who do not designate the use of proceeds provide higher amount of money in average. Third, in marketing, internet media works to those with ages from 20’s through 40’s, while TV, radio and word of mouth work for over those ages. Especially if the name of a fund raiser is yet small, the importance of word of mouth increases. In order to raise fund through home town tax effectively, local governments should build personal relationships to individuals widely and put emphasis on word of mouth marketing initially.