This book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of Japan's Hometown Tax Donation Payment system, to provide a clear picture of this newly developed unique and innovative fund-raising tool used by municipalities. It also sheds light on the influences that reciprocal gifts provided by each municipality to donors have on local economies by reviewing empirical works and surveys targeting local business owners and local financial institutions. A distinguishing feature of the book is that it introduces a new social finance mechanism that is unique to the Japanese market and could provide policy implications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as regional development. Furthermore, the book explores the efficacy of the demand-pull approach to support-strengthening SMEs, especially in rural areas. Finally, the book identifies some lessons learned from the system with a view toward advancing research on this phenomenon and making the system efficient and sustainable. As a whole, the book can provide ample benefits to novices, academics, researchers, and policymakers interested in Hometown Tax Donation Payment, an innovative social finance tool. This is an open access book.

This book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of crowdfunding to provide a comprehensive portrait of this newly developed market-based financial tool. In addition, it examines a number of economic theories to help readers understand the proliferation of crowdfunding, reviews empirical works to find gaps in the literature, and outlines future research directions. A unique feature of this book is that it discusses Japan's crowdfunding approach, which is somewhat different from that of the Western countries, by highlighting a specific crowdfunding platform (Music Securities) and a crowdfund-backed firm (SABAR restaurant). Further, it explores the suitability of Japan's crowdfunding approach for addressing the financial needs of SMEs in developing countries,using Bangladesh as a representative case. Finally, the book identifies some lessons learned from crowd funding so as to advance research into this phenomenon, and to make it efficient and sustainable. As such, the book will benefit novices, academics, researchers, and policymakers interested in crowdfunding technology.