Japanese Government Rewards Top Local Authorities With NFTs

• The Japanese government awards its mayors with non-transferable NFTs.
• The recipients were recognized for their technological ingenuity.
• Tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain follow the Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP).

The Japanese authorities have become the first to reward their local officials with NFTs. The government rewarded NFTs as a token of recognition for good work by local authorities who used digital technology to address and solve local challenges with NFTs.

The Mayors of Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, Maebashi, and Gunma Prefecture were among the seven who were awarded by the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, during the “Summer Digi Denkoshien 2022” ceremony.

The Mayor of Sakata won an award as its administration suggested electric vehicles, while Maebashi was awarded for suggesting a platform that could track traffic conditions in real-time via cameras on mobile devices. According to sources, the ceremony was attended by the country’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida.

However, the NFTs issued by the government are non-transferable as they are developed with the sole intention of being commemorable. Being non-transferable NFTs, these cannot be traded on the secondary market.

The NFTs were issued using indiesquare’s low-cost blockchain platform, the Hamzama Base, which was utilized to mint and distribute NFTs at an event held by the Liberal Democratic Party Youth Bureau.

Moreover, reports state that the tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain followed the Proof-of-Attendance-Protocol (POAP). 

The adoption of NFTs for recognition of good work comes after Kishida showed his consent to alter the nation’s crypto tax guidelines to nurture Web-3 related progress during his speech in parliament end-May.