Shibuya Near Family chapter 102: Ikko gave some thought to tax revenues>Sign: Construction underway - Apologies for the inconvenience>Isn't this excessive amount of municipal road construction>Banner: Shibuya Ward Council Meeting Broadcast>just a waste of the taxpayers' money?>We were trying to increase our tax revenues,>which lead to us wasting the taxpayers' money. Pictured is Hasebe Ken, as-of-writing current mayor of Shibuya Ward.>It's all because of the suggestion I gave to Hasebe...>That sounds like a really good idea, Ikko-chan.
>In Japan, we have an obligation to pay hometown tax.Hometown tax ("hometown" in the sense of "place where you grew up") has come up before in the series, if I remember correctly. Basically, Japanese people are allowed to redirect a portion of the taxes they would pay to their place of residence to some other city instead, who will usually send them some kind of thank-you gift. You can read a good English write-up at https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax/ (although it's possible that the article is somewhat out of date at this point).>No we don't.>Nobody forces us to do it.>If that's true,>then why is everyone always so worked up about paying hometown tax?>Well...>It's because you get thank-you gifts.>Website: Hometown NaviChoice>(Ranking) (Categories) (Regions) >Recommendations>1: Sirloin steak, 2: Tuna fillet, 3: Muscat GrapesThis is a website for choosing which city you want to pay your hometown tax to, based on the thank-you gifts they offer. The name seems to be a combination of two real websites, Furunavi and Furusato Choice.>Thank-you gifts?>You mean, those packages WEREN'T midsummer gifts sent to dad by the commoners,>because he's actually the eminence in shadows!?The Eminence in Shadow is a Japanese isekai series about a boy who works to become a mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes.>Eminence...?>And in shadows, no less...
>What a disappointment.>So dad's just a regular "Taxpayer Glasses" after all?>Taxpayer?>I mean...>I *do* pay the value-added tax...This is a callback to chapter 78.>The freezer's packed full.>I can't reach the ice cream.>You're not using the return gifts that they went through the trouble of sending you.>(Gulp...)>Well... You see...>With such high-quality meat,>it's difficult to find the right time to use it.>Label: WagyuWagyu is a collective name for four breeds of Japanese beef cattle, whose meat is highly valued as a delicacy. Many regions of Japan have their own brands of wagyu, Kobe beef being one of the best-known ones.>And with frozen goods,>the defrosting is a big hassle.>And if you choose to get regular deliveries,>they send you vegetables that you have no idea how to properly cook.>I, for one, do my best to consume this stuff.>Is that what those mystery meals sometimes turned up were?>Really... When you start feeling obligated to use these things,>it becomes kind of stressful, instead.
>As you fulfill your obligation to pay hometown tax,>your return gift is more sense of obligation.>(*Smug*)>You just wanted to say something cool, didn't you?>Well, when you get down to it,>that feeling of obligation comes from a poor choice of gifts.>We should have just gotten Amazon gift cards, instead.>You don't say that out loud...>You know, isn't it weird that you get to choose based on what gifts they offer?>Isn't it supposed to be a "hometown" tax?>If it's meant for hometowns,>you should to choose a place that *feels* like "hometown".>Feels like hometown!?
>Something like, "The Kamogawa where I chased after rabbits~"?>It turned into Kamogawa somewhere along the line, huh?This is a reference to a children's song called "Furusato" (meaning "hometown") originally written in 1914. The song opens with the line "The mountain where I chased after rabbits", which Ikko seems to have misheard or deliberately changed to involve Kamogawa, a city in Chiba prefecture (which is just across the bay from Tokyo).>Anyway, our hometown is Shibuya.>Can't we just pay the hometown tax here?>The system's set up so that you can't pay it to your place of residence.>That's just weird.>So, if anything, we pay tax to our hometown...>By NOT paying the hometown tax.>Really, when you think about it...>What IS a "hometown"?>I was born in Kashiwa,>so I guess that's my hometown?Kashiwa is another city in Chiba.>Must be nice, having a hometown.>Hometown?>Well, in my case, even though I'm usually in Shibuya,>if I had to choose,>I guess I'd consider one of the places we have holiday houses in as my "hometown". >Like Hayama, or maybe Karuizawa.>I could've done without hearing that.Hayama is a town in Kanagawa preferecture, notable for the fact that the Imperial family has a holiday villa there. Karuizawa is a resort town in Nagano prefecture, one of the best-known summer resorts in Japan.
>In that worries you,>why not try searching for the "hometown of your heart"?>The hometown>of my heart?>Close your eyes.>Meditate, and picture the place where your soul naturally longs to be.>I keep coming up with places that probably don't exist.>Maybe it's another planet?>That would mean that the "hometown of your heart" is outer space.>In the future, you can pay your hometown tax>to wherever Tanegashima Space Center is located.>I see!Tanegashima Space Center is the largest rocket launching facility in Japan, located on the island of Tanegashima in Kagoshima prefecture in the far southern tip of Japan.>Hey, now... Paying hometown tax is as far as you can get from showing love to your home.>The tax drain it creates is a serious issue for Tokyo's government.>Is that true!?
>We have to get that tax revenue back somehow,>which means that Shibuya needs up its thank-you gift game.>Well, it does look like even Shibuya offers gifts... Stuff like meal vouchers.>They're all for restaurants within the city, which means they're probably not in very high demand, huh?>Incidentally, Minato Ward does not offer any gifts, but they're still pretty visible in the public eye since they say they use the donations on social services. >Gnrrrgh...>Even if we can't compete in terms of food,>There has to be some kind of strength that Shibuya has that we could use.>I wonder... What is the most valuable thing one could find,>here in Shibuya?>Well.>It's the "land", isn't it?
>Like the soil from Koushien, huh...It's traditional for players to gather soil from Koushien Stadium as a souvenir after participating in the National High School Baseball Championship.>Now, we can use this to get back our tax revenue.>Please don't insult the people who pay hometown tax.>But, the "Tokyo Tap Water" that the metropolitan government sells seem to be popular,>so I guess there is demand for stuff like that.The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Waterworks sells bottled water as souvenirs. Naturally, this is the same water that comes out of Tokyo's taps.>In that case, Shibuya could do stuff like this!>Right to left: Shibuya River Water, Center-Gai Air, Shibuya Pebbles (Not Chocolate)Chocolate pebbles are chocolate candies coated to look like small colorful rocks.>But even if you were to collect Shibuya's soil,>doesn't the fact that most of it is covered with asphalt make things difficult?>That's true!>If we start more road construction projects,>we'll be able to tear the asphalt off, right?>Shibuya Duty Diary - You can think of hometowns as a speculator's market.>Sidebar: Ikko-chan has some powerful connections if she can casually influence the mayor like that! And as for Shibuya's return gifts, there's always the regional currency, Hachipay!Hachipay is a cashless payment system unique to Shibuya Ward.Thanks for reading! Make sure you pay your taxes, kids.
>>269226350Thank you for posting and translating.
Oh hey, it started at the start and ended at the end this time.
>>269228476No, I'm pretty sure it's the same "show the conclusion first" thing that he's been doing, it's just that instead of saying "How did this happen?", he had the character say "This is exactly how it happened."
>>269228768Nah, It just circled back around to what started the conversation in the first place.
>>269226350Thanks for dumping!
>>269232142Cronch
>>269232308Gronch
>>269232142Cute dummy.
>>269227498Sex
>>269228476Don't get used to it.
