Is it normal to be paying money to the village (not taxes)? In the village I’ve been living in, every household is expected to pay ¥1000/month. I’ve asked my spouse what the money is used for and every time I get a different answer. First I was told it was to pay for grass cutting, but from what I’ve seen that’s done by people of the town and everyone is expected to help. Then I was told it’s to pay for the lights around the village, but the only lights are along the main road through the village, but that should be getting paid by the city. Then I got told the city can’t afford it, so how tf can they afford to cover the nearby river in cement and build a massive (I’m guessing 1000+) car parking lot.
By my rough calculations, the village is collecting ¥3,600,000/year
4 comments
Is it 町会？ That’s HOA.
Sounds like the money that you have to pay for being a member of the neighborhood association. In my case it was much higher than that.. around ¥20-30k/year and our village “leader” is some kind of wannabe dictator.. who thought he could boss us around.. so we left the neighborhood association and told him to get lost.
Sounds like you’ve joined the chonaikai which is completely normal. Fees paid to the chonaikai are voluntary.
Chonaikais are involved in a lot of different activities. They host community events like festivals, barbecue parties and banquets. They also are involved in infrastructure through things like snow removal, maintaining street lights, and maintaining community spaces. They also help with disaster prep and sometimes pass around the 回覧板 (which is the main source of information for some small towns).
It’s normal. I’m super irritated by it though too. In some places you can get away without paying or doing the “volunteering” that goes with it, in other places you’ll create more problems for yourself by refusing. It pays for stuff like tea and snacks for the “volunteers.” Where I live now we all take turns cleaning the garbage station and delivering newsletters, it would be so simple for that to be done by post and internet. Irritating! Not something you are likely to make headway on, though, if you’ve got kids expect much more of the same when you meet the school system and pta.