The “unprecedented scattering” of 50,000 yen in cash, rice, and even cake in Oto Town, Fukuoka Prefecture, is a “desperate situation.

50,000 yen per person and 5 kg of rice

About an hour’s drive from central Fukuoka City. The policies of Oto Town, with a population of about 5,000, adjacent to Tagawa City, are attracting attention throughout the prefecture.

The town’s mayor was shot and killed, its chairman was shot, and for a long time no public questions were asked at town council meetings. The catchphrase “Ohtomachi is in trouble!　Oto-machi,” a poster that resembles a chivalrous movie with the catchphrase “Oto-machi,” won the “Hometown Pamphlet Award,” and other controversial events have been taking place in the town.

The town will provide “50,000 yen per resident, including 5 kg of rice,” and it is extremely rare for a municipality in Japan to offer such a generous financial support. However, the people of the prefecture seem to have received it in a variety of ways. A reporter for a local newspaper commented, “Ohtomachi is a town in the Tagawa area.

The town of Oto is overwhelmingly financially better off than neighboring municipalities, partly because it accepted a project to build a waste treatment facility in the Tagawa area. The balance of the fiscal adjustment fund and other funds is also 5.1 billion yen, an increase of nearly three times over the past 20 years. Many residents are taking this economic policy as a buffer against accepting a large waste treatment facility, which some have opposed, and as a “scattering” in preparation for the mayoral election coming up next March.

This reporter once visited Daito-cho for an interview and was surprised to find that the town hall and roadside station were stylishly built and the roads were well painted. The town’s size is hard to imagine, but there was construction work going on everywhere. Driving to a neighboring town, the difference was striking.

The total cost of the economic assistance project was 280 million yen. In addition to cash and rice, the payments will include natto (fermented soybeans), dressing, and other specialty products. In addition, the town will present birthday cakes (approximately 18 cm in diameter) to residents who will celebrate their birthdays from January next year onward.