New digital currency aims to connect the fair trade community

A new digital currency was launched in Japan earlier this month that aims to connect fair trade consumers and companies to create a community that can participate in initiatives to counter climate change. It also wants to encourage ethical consumption, corporate social responsibility and work toward the U.N.’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The currency, temporarily dubbed ‘FairTrade Coin,’ uses a platform provided by Japanese company eumo. (It is the same company that introduced an empathy community currency last October.)

The FairTrade Coin was launched in 15 stores in Tokyo and in cities in central Japan that have earned accreditation from Fairtrade International – Nagoya, in Aichi Prefecture, and Inabe City in Mie Prefecture, as well as Gifu Prefecture’s Tarui Town, which is working toward receiving accreditation. The coin’s usage is scheduled to expand to 100 stores by the end of the current fiscal year, in March 2021.

Customers can pay with the FairTrade Coin via a smartphone QR code, a terminal in shops, or over the internet. The digital currency creates connections between users and shops, manufacturers, local regions and global manufacturers, all of whom are active in the field of fair trade and community contribution.

Sustainable Story behind FairTrade Coin

The company behind the FairTrade Coin is Sustainable Story, Inc., which is based in Nagoya City and promotes corporate SDG projects and runs a start-up program and support service for entrepreneurs aiming to solve regional and global social issues.

Sustainable Story says it will donate a portion of the profits from the FairTrade Coin to be used to spread the ideas of fair trade and ethical consumption, promote Fairtrade towns and assist non-governmental organizations. It is also planning to seek ideas for an alternative name for the currency.

The company believes this initiative will help to achieve SDG 17: strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Supporting what you believe in

According to a 2018 report by Fairtrade International, the global market for trade via approved routes is about 1.3 trillion yen and more than 12.4 billion yen in Japan alone.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how vulnerable independent stores and disadvantaged communities and workers, in particular, can be when our usual patterns of life get disrupted. It has also drawn our focus to our local communities and what we can do to help them, and shifted our view of many fundamental jobs from a dollar-based evaluation to one that recognizes their role in supporting our lives. The FairTrade Coin seems primed to facilitate that new recognition and allow communities to support each other, even when they stretch across countries.