Japanese Government Rewards Mayors With NFTs
During an annual award ceremony held to recognize and celebrate initiatives taken by local authorities, several mayors received NFT’s as “supplementary prizes”.
Cryptonews reported that seven mayors were given NFT awards for their government’s digital economy-themed proposals.
One of these awards went to the Mayor of Sakata whose government proposed that local deliveries be made by electric vehicles. Another award went to the mayor of Maebashi whose government proposed a platform to detect real-time traffic condition changes using mobile phone cameras.
The NFT awards provided a segway to announce new digital initiatives that will award those that utilize digital technology to solve local issues.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has been publicly supporting web3-related growth. In a Coinpost report from May 2022, Kishida announced that he intended to invest heavily into science and technology, and innovation. The Prime Minister also ensured that he was ready and willing to reform regulations and systems to prepare for a more advanced digital age. Kishida also pointed out that metaverse and NFT-related developments are included in their growth strategies.
Japan has recently been pushing to become more crypto-friendly. Two advocacy groups came together in August to release a tax reform request to lower taxes for individuals on crypto-related profits.
The 2023 reform request proposes a 20% tax for individual investors with provisions to carry losses for three years. Japan currently taxes crypto as miscellaneous income which can be taxed up to 55%.
