About the Authors -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Time for Regional Areas to Incorporate Management Perspectives in Pursuit of a Sustainable Society -- Chapter 2 Overview of Hometown Tax Donation and the Challenge It Poses to Municipal Administration—Paradigm Shift in Municipal Administration: Incorporating Management Perspectives -- Chapter 3 Effects of Fostering Local Businesses and Measures for Enhancing Business Capabilities: —Based on Case Studies on Hometown Tax Donation Gift Providers -- Chapter 4 1 With a View Toward Initiating Regional Entrepreneurship—Based on Data Analysis and Survey Research of Hometown Tax Donation Gift Providers -- Chapter 5 Prospects for Regional Financial Institutions to Enhance Their Roles Through Hometown Tax Donation—Current State of Lending by Regional Financial Institutions and of Intra-regional Industry-Government-Banking Collaboration.-Chapter 6 1 Regarding Measures by Rural Areas to Promote Migration and Settlement and Increase Associating Populations—Implications from Various Measures Triggered by Hometown Tax Donation -- Chapter 7 The Role of Social Finance in Resolving Regional Issues—Recent Trends in Japanese Civic Crowdfunding -- Chapter 8 Implications for Regional Development Drawn from the Hometown Tax Donation System—Aiming to Produce Regional Entrepreneurship.

Open Access

This book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of Japan’s Hometown Tax Donation Payment system, to provide a clear picture of this newly developed unique and innovative fund-raising tool used by municipalities. It also sheds light on the influences that reciprocal gifts provided by each municipality to donors have on local economies by reviewing empirical works and surveys targeting local business owners and local financial institutions. A distinguishing feature of the book is that it introduces a new social finance mechanism that is unique to the Japanese market and could provide policy implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as regional development. Furthermore, the book explores the efficacy of the demand–pull approach to support-strengthening SMEs, especially in rural areas. Finally, the book identifies some lessons learned from the system with a view toward advancing research on this phenomenon and making the system efficient and sustainable. As a whole, the book can provide ample benefits to novices, academics, researchers, and policymakers interested in Hometown Tax Donation Payment, an innovative social finance tool. This is an open access book.