INTERVIEW: Izumisano Mayor Raps Ministry over Hometown Donation System

October 26, 2018

Izumisano, Osaka Pref.- The mayor of Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, has criticized an instruction issued by the internal affairs ministry earlier this year regarding a review of the "furusato nozei" hometown donation system.

The ministry instructed local governments to limit gifts for donators under the system to products of their own regions, in order to cool down competition for donations among them.

The ministry is preparing to submit a law revision to shut out of the furusato nozei system local governments that do not follow the instruction.

Izumisano attracted donations totaling 13,533 million yen in fiscal 2017, the largest amount among all municipalities. On the western city's lineup of return gifts are about 1,000 local specialties procured from across the country, including beef and beer.

In a recent interview with Jiji Press, Izumisano Mayor Hiroyasu Chiyomatsu claimed that the donations to the city resulted from efforts by related officials and others to find and prepare popular gifts based on a survey on what donors want.

"It's not appropriate for the central government to unilaterally determine the scope of allowable gifts" while it is calling for stepped-up local autonomy, Chiyomatsu argued, adding that such moves by the state are an act that "overrides efforts by local governments."

"We want room for local governments' efforts to come up with ideas to be left" in the ongoing review of the donation system, he said, calling for the establishment of a forum for discussions in which both central and local governments are involved.

"We could make a decision to withdraw from the framework of the donation system if products other than specialties unique to regions in and around recipient local governments are excluded from the range of allowable return gifts under the system," the mayor said.

Under the furusato nozei system, people can make donations to prefectures or municipalities of their choice, which do not necessarily have to be their hometowns, and the donors qualify for income and residential tax cuts.

Many recipient local governments offer return gifts to donors, with some of them offering expensive gifts to lure more donors.

Chiyomatsu said his city plans to continue offering reward points that can be used for buying tickets for flights of Peach Aviation, a budget airline based in Kansai International Airport straddling Izumisano and two other municipalities in Osaka Prefecture.

Meanwhile, the mayor expressed some understanding for another internal affairs ministry instruction for keeping the value of return gifts at or below 30 pct of donation amounts.

The city will follow the instruction if the ministry shows enough grounds for applying the rule across the nation under the furusato nozei system, he said. Jiji Press