Country folk in Japan often say that people in the big cities have forgotten all about them. Yet many city-dwellers still harbour strong feelings towards their furusato, or home town-that rural area which their forebears may have left many decades ago during the country's rapid urbanisation. For some lucky rural towns, the unexpected popularity of a scheme called furusato nozei, or hometown tax, is proving a windfall. Seven years ago the central government began allowing city residents to divert a proportion of their income-tax payments to a furusato of their choice. The response has been overwhelming. In the last fiscal year rural towns earned ¥14 billion ($1.2 billion) from such contributions.
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