{"id":174924,"date":"2025-12-11T14:37:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T05:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=174924&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-12-11T14:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T05:37:06","slug":"fukuoka-drops-rice-coupon-plan","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/fukuoka-drops-rice-coupon-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka Drops Rice-Coupon Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima announced that the city will not distribute government-promoted \u201crice coupons,\u201d citing high administrative and issuance costs. Although the coupons were highlighted in national economic relief measures, the program was not included in the city\u2019s supplementary budget proposal. Takashima noted that issuing a \u00a5500 coupon requires about \u00a560 in processing fees, and verifying household information and mailing the coupons would add substantial expenses. He emphasized that emergency support should minimize intermediary costs to reach residents effectively. Instead, the city plans measures such as waiving two months of sewerage fees, which he said would provide direct relief with lower administrative burden. The mayor added that the city will continue evaluating cost-efficient ways to return benefits to residents. <\/span><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/kbc.co.jp\/news\/article.php?id=16546233&amp;ymd=2025-12-09\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KBC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u3000<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_174912\" style=\"width: 1410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-174912\" class=\"size-full wp-image-174912\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_rice-store_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=1400%2C1050&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fukuoka Drops Rice-Coupon Plan\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_rice-store_2025_WEB.jpeg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_rice-store_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_rice-store_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_rice-store_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-174912\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Fukuoka Now, for image purpose only.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima announced that the city will not distribute government-promoted \u201crice coupons,\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":174912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-174924","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-city","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/174924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}