Mayor Of Japanese City Visits Ripple HQ; But Why?
- The Mayor of Fakuoka City, Soichiro Takashima, the sixth largest city in Japan, met with the VP of Corporate Strategy and Operations at Ripple, Emi Yoshikawa and his team at the headquarters the firm.
- While Japan has high corporate tax on holding crypto, Japanese firms are not shy of investing in crypto and blockchain technology.
The Mayor of Fakuoka City, Soichiro Takashima, the sixth largest city in Japan, met with the VP of Corporate Strategy and Operations at Ripple, Emi Yoshikawa and his team at the headquarters of the US-based technology company.
On Saturday, Yoshikawa revealed that the mayor of Fukuoka, the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan, has a population of around 1.6 million (as of June 2021), visited the company’s HQ. The Twitter post’s rough translation stands at:
“We welcomed Fukuoka City Mayor Soichiro Takashima and his team at Ripple HQ today! Fukuoka is a leading city in Web3 initiatives in Japan. Today, Mayor Takashima of Fukuoka City and people from the international department visited Ripple’s headquarters! I have high hopes for Fukuoka City, which is actively working on Web3,“
said Yoshikawa in a Twitter post.
It seems that Mayor Takashima has taken a keen interest in the operations of Ripple.
On 23 March 2022, in a blog post, the remittance network firm mentioned the fact that Yoshikawa was featured in ‘Forbes Japan’ alongside other trailblazing women to “discuss their shared experiences in the blockchain space.”
“After witnessing the 2008 financial crisis from Wall Street, Emi chose to pivot by attending Harvard Business School to further her education. She saw potential in the crypto industry to fill the cracks in the existing financial system — a system she saw crash just a few years earlier — and has worked at Ripple since 2016,”
the payment firm noted.
Yoshikawa has six years of blockchain experience and a Harvard degree under her belt and was also the founding core member of Kyoto University’s Blockchain Research Center.
While not much details about the meeting was revealed, it can be confirmed that there are chances of a potential partnership or deal between Fakuoka City and Ripple despite its ongoing rivalry and case with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Recently, it was also noted that the crypto lobbying groups in Japan expressed their concerns over a corporate tax of about 30% on profits from crypto holdings and unrealized gain. The Japan Virtual and Crypto Asset Exchange Association and the Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA) are in talks with the authorities to ease corporate tax laws.
Japanese firms are also not shy of investing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Automakers Toyota and Nissan unveiled their plans to metaverse industries as well.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
