Points are Coming

Check your local government for details

Do you like free money? Keep reading.

A few weeks ago I saw on the local news that Sendai City was starting to give out points to help with the cost of living (and also to get people to sign up for the Sendai City information app).

I searched for ‘Sendai City + points’ in Japanese (仙台市　ポイント) and easily found the city website with the link to the app on the Google Play Store.

Downloaded the app. Clicked to link it to My Number (using the My Number app, also on my phone). Had to type in both My Number passwords and hold the My Number card to the card reader in my phone.

Then confirmed I got my 3,000 Miyagi Points in the app. There is a list of shops in the city where I can apparently use the points, so will do so soon.

I sent my wife a quick LINE about it, and she also got her points quickly and easily.

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Other cities

My daughter lives in a small city next to Sendai, so I searched for that city name + points too and found they were running a similar campaign about a month later. I sent my daughter the details so she should be able to get 3,000 points for each family member (18,000 points in total).

And Tokyo is doing a similar thing, except they are giving away 11,000 points instead of the 3,000 we got. I guess the Tokyo City Government has more money, or life in the big city is more expensive.

So it seems that many places in Japan are running similar campaigns at the moment. Just search for (your city + points) and see if you are eligible for some cash equivalent points.

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The catch?

What about the app you have to sign up for, you say? Well, it seems to be a city information sharing app. I received one notification about some disaster drills, and that has been it so far.

All in all, a net positive in my opinion. When something bad happens, I want to get quick and accurate information from the city so installing the app and linking my info was not a big deal.

How about you? Is your city or prefecture giving away points? Are you going to sign up to get them?

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