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Word: yufuin (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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...decade of economic decline. The excess and hubris that once bought Rockefeller Center and Pebble Beach golf courses have been replaced by a growing malaise. Joblessness, bankruptcy, crime and suicide, once rare in Japan, are now just average headlines. In the recession-ravaged hot-springs resort town of Yufuin, citizens are hedging their futures by resorting to barter trade. Taxi rides, sake and even hospital bills can be paid for with a local scrip called the yufu. What backs it? Locals do odd jobs in return for yufu. "Our wealth is slipping away," moans Eisuke Sakakibara, a former Vice Minister...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Time For Hardball? | 2/18/2002 | See Source »

Recession-ravaged residents of this tiny hot-springs town found a way to improve their standard of living. Stuck with low-paying and seasonal tourism-related jobs, Yufuin's citizens solved a chronic yen-flow problem by boosting the local monetary supply: they print their own currency...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: No Yen? No Problem! | 2/18/2002 | See Source »

...Yufuin you can get a taxi ride, buy a bottle of sake, eat lunch, book a train ticket and supplement your wardrobe using a self-generated scrip the townspeople call yufu. "The yen isn't very stable anyway, is it?" says Ryuji Urata, a 38-year-old liquor-store owner who came up with the scheme two years ago. "So instead of being subject to what the national government does, we have our own strong currency...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: No Yen? No Problem! | 2/18/2002 | See Source »

...inspired dozens of other towns across Japan to dabble in their own currencies. In other countries, barter clubs are frowned upon because they can be used as a glorified tax dodge - people don't have to report yufu revenue, for example, or pay Japan's national 5% sales tax. (Yufuin itself doesn't have a local sales tax.) So far, tax authorities in Japan are looking the other way. "This kind of activity is not large enough to attract our attention," says Masaki Omura, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance. Says Eisuke Sakakibara, the former Vice Finance Minister known...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: No Yen? No Problem! | 2/18/2002 | See Source »

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