Japanese government starts issuing NFTs to reward officials

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida supported the initiative

09.09.2022 - 15:00

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What’s new? Japan was one of the first countries to start using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a supplementary award for local governments that excelled in the digitalization competition. The awards were presented to seven officials by the Cabinet Secretariat in recognition of their efforts to use digital technology to solve local problems. According to Coinpost, four technology companies supported this year's awards ceremony: Indiesquare, Bitflyer Holdings, Tree Digital Studio and Tomonari Kogei. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended the event.

Information on the Coinpost website

What does the report say? The blockchain platform Hazama Base was used to produce and distribute the NFTs. Prior to that, the platform was used at an event hosted by the Liberal Democratic Party Youth Bureau. The tokens were issued on the Ethereum blockchain, but used Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) technology. NFTs of the POAP type are usually used at exclusive events. This means that Secretariat tokens cannot be traded on secondary markets.

What is known about Hazama Base? It is a platform that allows any user to create NFTs easily and for free, and gives the choice on which blockchain to generate them: HAZAMA, Ethereum or Polygon.

The Prime Minister is positive about NFTs and metaverse innovation. He promised to help startups try to expand by reforming restrictive tax laws. This led regulators to follow his lead and recommend changes to the tax code.

In late August, the Financial Services Agency and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry allowed the possibility of changes to the taxation of digital assets for legal entities in anticipation of the 2023 tax reform.

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