How attractive is Bitcoin? Hirosaki City in Japan starts accepting BTC donations

Hirosaki, a Japanese city, has begun accepting Bitcoin donations, organized by a Japanese public institution. The news comes just weeks after 260,000 new merchants in Japan accepted Bitcoin as a payment method.

The area is famous for the Aomori Prefecture Park with 2,600 cherry trees and 400-year-old ancient buildings. Hirosaki City's purpose of accepting Bitcoin donations is to raise funds to protect more than 50 varieties of local cherry trees and repair the damaged stone walls of ancient buildings.

According to Japanese media TV NHK, the park attracts at least 2 million visitors every year during the flowering season, so the protection of these cherry trees is very necessary and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

City officials reportedly chose to accept Bitcoin to encourage overseas donations because the currency is popular abroad and remittance fees are relatively low. Hirosaki Deputy Mayor Noboru Yamamoto said Bitcoin could provide a fundraising solution for other city governments in Japan.

CoinCheck, a Japanese bitcoin company working with the local government on the project, cited a statement from a Hirosaki city official:

We hope that accepting Bitcoin donations will be a meaningful way to help Hirosaki’s cherry blossoms thrive and its architecture be preserved, especially for those living outside of Japan.

When raising overseas donations, blockchain's fast payment process, low processing fees, and high transaction transparency and security can improve fundraising efficiency.

He added:

In addition, the Bitcoin donation process is very convenient. You only need to use a smartphone to scan a QR code to send a transaction, and you can view the transaction process and donation results in real time. We believe that these characteristics of blockchain can increase satisfaction and create a memorable donation experience for donors. At the same time, we also hope that Bitcoin donations can become a major attraction for tourists. From a more practical perspective, Bitcoin donations require lower costs than traditional methods.

Kagayaki Kawabata, business director at CoinCheck, also noted the changing attitudes of the Japanese public toward Bitcoin. He wrote in an email:

The fact that local governments in Japan are accepting Bitcoin donations shows that ordinary people have changed their views on this digital currency. A few years ago, the government didn't care about Bitcoin at all. Now, even local governments have begun to use Bitcoin as a tool to attract foreign tourists.