City in Aichi Prefecture Adds Figurines Made by 3D Printer to List of Gifts for Furusato Nozei Hometown Donation Program
The Tokoname city government in Aichi Prefecture recently added the figurine to its list of gifts offered under the 'furusato nozei' tax donation system, which promotes a region by making donations to a donor's hometown or municipalities that they want to support.
Donors need to go to a factory in the city to have their appearance recorded digitally, and then the data is used to produce a 3D figurine.
The municipal government believes that the experience will give donors the opportunity to walk along the local streets and see the attractiveness of the city.
The figurines come in two sizes and are made of resin. Participants who donate ¥128,000 can get a medium-size figurine that is 12 centimeters tall. Large-size figurines are 15 centimeters tall and available for those who donate ¥161,000.
The 3D printer can produce 10 million color tones, and the figurines precisely reproduce a person's appearance including shading on the face, hairstyles and wrinkles on clothes.
There is also a plan for people to order figurines of themselves and their pets as a set.
It takes about a month for a figurine to be completed.
Tel-mic Co. — a parts-machining company based in Kariya in the prefecture — produces the figurines at a factory in Tokoname.
The company began producing figurines as a new business in October, and it has received many orders. Clients include those who want figurines of their grandchildren celebrating the Shichigosan festival, in which girls aged 3 and 7 and boys aged 3 and 5 are taken to shrines to pray for a safe and healthy future. Also, boat racers who go to a motorboat racing stadium in the city get figurines as commemorative items.
So far, the company has produced about 100 such figurines.
As part of the process to produce a figurine, donors must go to Tokoname because their entire body needs to be scanned by a 3D scanner in the factory.
'Starting with the local pottery, I want people to learn about all the appeal points of this city,' said Tokoname Mayor Tatsuya Ito, who devised the idea of the figurines. 'I also want to increase fans who can correctly read the kanji characters of the city name [which may be difficult to read correctly even for some Japanese people.]'
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