Crowdfunding for science museum makes history raising record 900 million yen

TOKYO, Nov 06 (News On Japan) - More than 915 million yen in support was raised for the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, nine times the target amount, making it the highest ever crowdfunding campaign in Japan.

The museum started crowdfunding in August to fund a new storage facility, surpassing the target amount of 100 million yen in just over 7 hours.

Unique rewards available through the campaign included experiences such as entering the cockpit of a YS-11 airplane (priced at 500,000 yen), an original handbook of researchers' favorite specimens (priced at 15,000 yen), and animal collection and preservation at the museum (priced at 20,000 yen).

The crowdfunding campaign concluded Sunday night at 11 p.m., with 56,562 people pledging 915.56 million yen.

Both the number of supporters and the amount raised set a new record for crowdfunding in Japan.

by Brian Dentry

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