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THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

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type currencies, others Hureai Kippu (described in the next chapter)<br />

and still others integrate various services into a single smart-card<br />

system. An impressive list of 27 different types of activities are being<br />

integrated by using eco-money, including welfare, education, disaster<br />

prevention, environmental protection, services promoting the<br />

understanding of cultural assets, as well as a series of 'civil<br />

businesses' such as enterprises providing natural foods for children<br />

with allergies to chemicals, production of soap made from recycled<br />

cooking oil, and at-home care for the sick and elderly.<br />

As of October 1999, besides the ten pilot projects, another thirty are<br />

in an 'assessment' stage (designing the specifications of their own<br />

systems, while evaluating the results of the ten pilot projects).<br />

These projects are being combined with the generalisation of the<br />

use of anart cards by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Already<br />

one of the smart-card pilots in Yokosuka combines health insurance<br />

data with eco-money and normal national currency usable for<br />

everyday shopping. Plans for a 'Next Generation Info-Community<br />

Network' expand that concept to include medical care support and<br />

allergies data, safety confirmation systems for natural disasters,<br />

various licences, public ID, Internet as well as physical mall<br />

shopping, phone card and discount services for long-distance phone<br />

calls, petrol and other services available at discount rates, public<br />

transport and travel mileage services. Whether all these functions<br />

will end up on a single smart card or not, the main point remains<br />

valid: Japan is determined to be a leader in regional development<br />

strategies for the Information Age, and is using the appropriate tool<br />

of complementary currencies to achieve it.<br />

Some big corporations are getting involved in this eco-money<br />

process: for instance Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NIT) is<br />

developing software systems in the context of its 'Daily Life Welfare<br />

Information Network' project (which includes city governance, local

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