Furusato Amazon is coming!

[Deep Blue]

You're only considering the money, not the economy as a whole.

The money could be spent directly stimulating the economy without all the inefficiencies of administering the furuzato nozei system, if this is the goal. But Japan has contrived to set up this bureaucratic system that must employ thousands of people doing a non-job instead of something productive. Japan has a shortage of workers in every industry, with 1.3 jobs for every applicant nationwide.

The logistics industry is particularly hard up, can't be helped much by millions of extra gift deliveries!

Much simplier to cut taxes directly and let us choose how to spend our money ourselves rather than jumping through hoops to get apples from Nagano or crabs from Hokkaido.... let's face it we can buy this stuff directly from farmers if we like.... or we can just get them in the local shops anyway.

How is "directly stimulating the economy" in any way different than providing jobs for all the unemployed people in Hokkaido who get to benefit from the jobs created by the scheme ?
Some areas have a shortage of paying jobs or paying non-jobs, which is why many (younger) people leave those areas in search or real paying jobs or real paying non-jobs...
Maybe doing this tax administration stuff is better than standing waving a light sabre in front of roadworks

Maybe, the logistics industry in some areas is only able to survive through the business created by the scheme, and everyone in the area then benefits from the survival of the logistics industry in that area, so can be very much helped by the extra gift deliveries, or they would have to close down in those rural areas and lay off what workers they did employ, making it more difficult to get anything delivered...

The scheme allows the donor some discretion in directing their tax yen, and some incentive to make the effort...

Nah. I’m sorry but not going to waste time arguing about this, the facts are clear and this scheme is hare-brained. Next I fully expect someone to argue the Government should pay people to dig holes and then pay some others to fill them in.

Stimulating the local economy, creating jobs, better than red stick men… helping the trucking industry shovel dirt around… it’s pure deadweight loss caused by faulty incentives.