Kotohira Town Sells "Stone-Step Owner Rights" on the 365-Step Approach to Kotohira-gu, with NFT Certificates — ¥50,000 per Slot, 40 Slots, via Aruyaumu's Municipal RWA Platform TOKKEN

The product: a five-year naming right, not ownership

The offer covers steps 1 through 365 of the approach to Kotohira-gu, up to the Ōmon (Great Gate). The main shrine is 785 steps up and the inner shrine 1,368; the Ōmon sits at step 365. Buyers choose one step, for example matching a birthday or anniversary, and a name seal is installed on it. Steps 145, 248 and 352 are excluded for structural reasons, and consecutive steps are capped at five per purchase. Only personal or corporate names may appear; logos, URLs, phone numbers and promotional copy are not allowed. Applications run from noon on October 7 to 23:59 on November 20, 2026. Installation begins in mid-January 2027 and is scheduled to finish around the end of that month. Both the release and the product page state that "owner" is a nickname and that the purchase confers no ownership or possessory right over the steps.

The sales scheme: pre-screened direct sale with an NFT certificate

The process runs from a pre-consultation on the TOKKEN product page, to submission of the desired step and name, approval of the content, purchase within 10 days of the approval notice, and finally seal production, installation and delivery of a photo. When applications for the same step overlap, the first buyer to complete the purchase gets it. The product page states explicitly that this is not a furusato nozei return gift. It is therefore an ordinary sale: buyers get no donation tax deduction, and the rule capping return-gift costs at 30% of the donation does not apply. The NFT is described as a digital certificate recording owner status. Neither the naming right nor the NFT can be transferred, and no returns or cancellations are accepted after issuance. Neither the release nor the product page names the blockchain, says whether a wallet is needed, or lists payment methods. TOKKEN's terms of use provide that Aruyaumu, as platform provider, collects payment on the seller's behalf, and that either the provider or a local government may act as seller.

Aruyaumu and TOKKEN

Aruyaumu, founded in Sapporo in November 2020, was the first in Japan to offer NFTs as furusato nozei return gifts and has supplied such gifts through 26 municipalities. Its cumulative funding was reported at about ¥178 million as of May 2024. In July 2025 it began selling NFT-backed local rights with Funahashi Village (Toyama), Kotohira Town and Mukawa Town (Hokkaido), and in November 2025 it formally launched TOKKEN as a "municipal RWA platform." Kotohira has already listed an experience right for the stage-lift mechanism at the historic Kanamaru-za theater (¥500,000 per slot) and hot-spring day passes, so the stone steps are at least its third rights-based product on the platform.

Scale and open questions

A full sell-out of 40 slots would bring in ¥2 million, or ¥10,000 per slot per year. That is small even for a town of about 8,500 people. What matters is that the town has turned a physical location into a product without holding inventory, on an approach used by a reported 2 million-plus visitors a year. Compare the Nishikigoi NFTs that the Yamakoshi area of Nagaoka, Niigata, issued on Ethereum in 2021, which drew more than 1,500 digital villagers against about 800 residents. Here the core product is a physical display right, and the NFT plays a subordinate role as a certificate. Also, although the town is the seller, the release does not mention approval or involvement by Kotohira-gu. Many corporate buyers will want clarity before purchasing on the boundary between shrine precincts and town-managed land, on the separation of public funds from religious activity, and on who maintains the installed seals.

[Business Development Insights]

1. New municipal revenue is spreading to direct sales of rights outside the furusato nozei system. As the 30% return-gift cap and the ban on portal points tighten, structuring a product as a sale rather than a donation gives more freedom over pricing and repeat-purchase design. Without a tax deduction to attract buyers, however, the product has to sell on its own experiential value and scarcity.
2. Limiting the NFT to a non-transferable certificate is a practical way to avoid Payment Services Act and FIEA questions and resale disputes, but it weakens the case for using a blockchain at all. Companies using such slots should not expect investment value or liquidity from the NFT. Its main value is commemorative, plus a tamper-resistant record.
3. In models that sell naming rights to physical places, rights-holder consent decides whether the product works. Documenting consent in advance from land and facility managers, religious corporations and landscape regulators, and disclosing it on the sales page, is the minimum needed to earn trust in municipal projects. For platform operators, offering a standard process for verifying and disclosing that consent could itself set them apart.

[Sources]

Kotohira-gu approach 365 steps "Stone-Step Owner Rights" on sale, 40 slots (Aruyaumu Inc., PR TIMES) — https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000381.000091165.html TOKKEN product page: Kotohira-gu Approach 365 Steps Stone-Step Owner Right — https://tokken.alyawmu.com/product/bbe7c1de-2c0c-4af6-9754-ed3bf9fac3e9 TOKKEN Terms of Use — https://tokken.alyawmu.com/terms TOKKEN launches as first municipal RWA platform (ASCII.jp) — https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/352/4352274/ Kotohira Onsen Yumoto Yachiyo day-use passes on TOKKEN (Aruyaumu Inc., PR TIMES) — https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000303.000091165.html Aruyaumu pre-Series A extension round, 2nd close (THE BRIDGE) — https://thebridge.jp/2024/05/alyawmu-pre-series-a2-round-funding Aruyaumu raises ¥73.5 million (Sogyo Techo) — https://sogyotecho.jp/news/20241118ayawmu After climbing 785 steps: Kotohira-gu guide (travel.co.jp) — https://www.travel.co.jp/guide/article/35903/ Enjoying the long stairs of Kotohira-gu with family (BE-PAL) — https://www.bepal.net/archives/426985 Kotohira Town population and households (Homemate Research) — https://www.homemate.co.jp/research/pr-kagawa/37403/ Kotohira digital nomad tour (Travel Voice) — https://www.travelvoice.jp/20260422-159647 Yamakoshi DAO: Nishikigoi NFTs and digital villagers (Mitsubishi Electric Xperspectives) — https://www.mitsubishielectric.co.jp/business/biz-t/contents/xperspectives/dao/002_01.html On designation criteria for furusato nozei (MIC, April 25, 2025) — https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/001010473.pdf Kotohira-gu to leave the Association of Shinto Shrines (Jiji Press) — https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/5480