Kyotei: The Backbone of The Nippon Foundation
James L. Huffman
The Nippon Foundation
The Nippon Foundation
Indepth Articles
[Jun. 16, 2005]
The Kyotei System of Social Revitalization
The system is run as follows:
Of all monies bet at the race course, 75 percent is immediately paid back to the bettors as winnings. This percentage is kept constant by what is called a pari-mutuel betting system, which raises and lowers the odds automatically depending on how many people have bet on a particular boat. Simply put, the less popular a boat, the higher the potential return.
The remaining 25 percent of the money is split four ways:
- 2.6 percent goes to The Nippon Foundation, which uses the funds to support domestic and foreign programs in a wide variety of fields, not least of which are the maritime and shipbuilding fields. The third installment of this series will deal with this philanthropy.
- 1.2 percent is used by the Motorboat Racing association for the maintenance of boats and motors, management of racing participants, racing operations and other general expenses.
- 1.1 percent is funneled through public corporations and finance corporations to be used for water supply services and drainage facilities.
- Most of the remaining 19.4 percent is used to cover racing expenses, which take the form of facilities construction and upkeep; personnel and management fees; and prize money.
After this has been taken care of, everything that is left goes
through racing operators to be used for road construction and
maintenance, redevelopment projects, education and the building of
public facilities. These funds and the projects that they fund will
be covered in the second installment of this series.
As can be seen, at least 3.7 percent of racing revenue is directed
back into society in the form of specific projects to aid areas
that have been neglected by the normal government-run social
systems.
3.7 percent. A small number? Perhaps, but consider the fact that in
fiscal 2002, Kyotei revenues totaled more than 1.3 trillion yen, or
nearly USD 11 billion. What this means is that more than 400
million dollars was used to improve our world that year.