A Japanese village turns to NFTs to help the elderly
Yamakoshi, a lonely Japanese village in the Niigata Mountains, has attracted 1,700 “digital citizens” by selling non-perishable tokens (NFT) in an effort to support and sustain its aging population.
The Neo-Yamakoshi Village Project, run by local residents, manages the Nishikigoi NFT collection, which is named after a vibrant species of koi carp.
This digital asset is a governance token for Yamakoshi's “Digital Citizens” account and enables participation in the village's DAO-managed voting processes.
According to a new report published by the Japanese research and consulting firm Yuri Group, the project Since its launch in 2021, Nishikigoi has raised over $423,000 in NFT sales.
The money was directed to community initiatives such as organizing a sports day for local school children.
Nishikigoi tokens are free for physical residents, but the digital community must purchase them. According to NFT marketplace Magic Eden, the land price is 0.0318 Ether (ETH) as of June 26.
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NFT technology alone will not provide an immediate solution to Japan's low birth rate, but it is a unique and experimental approach to raising funds for an aging population in isolated rural communities.
“If their strategy works and expands to other villages, we estimate that rural Japan will be able to raise around half a billion dollars and pilot a new wave of social technology globally,” Yuri Group said. In the report.
In April, the private sector group Population Strategy Council reported that 40% of Japan's 1,729 municipalities are at risk of losing births.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration sees Web3 as a key element in achieving “Society 5.0,” a plan that integrates technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data to create a more sustainable and advanced society.
The Neo-Yamakoshi Village Project has been given 10 million yen (about $62,500) by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to test and implement Web3 tools.
However, the project encountered some obstacles, such as explaining the technology and its benefits to the elderly.
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According to Yuri Group, the project manager of the decentralized autonomous organization found it difficult to demonstrate the voting process and low voter turnout.
Additionally, overseas digital citizens also face language barriers.
Meanwhile, global NFT trading has seen a significant decline in recent months.
Global NFT sales are on pace to close the second quarter of 2024 down 45%, while June is expected to be the best-performing month since October 2023, according to CryptoSlam data.
NFT market capitalization, which is largely held by derivatives and derivatives, fell 31.5% in the three months to June 26, according to NFTGo data.
Although it has recently dabbled in NFT trading activities, Yuri Group told Cointelegraph that there is room for both functional NFTs and profile sets in Japan.
“This is Japan, after all, – the home of anime and manga and a country with a huge physical collection culture that is good for NFT adoption,” Will Fei, a researcher at Yuri Group, told Cointelegraph.
“The ‘digital citizens' in Yamakoshi's metaverse tend to use anime or more cartoonish avatars, suggesting that the technology's more playful applications have a shelf life beyond its socially impactful use cases,” he added.
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