Lottery for livestock farmers

A new lottery to raise funds to help businesses damaged by foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture has begun nationwide.

When the disease broke out in the prefecture in April of 2010, some 300,000 cattle and pigs had to be slaughtered before the epidemic was declared over 4 months later.

In addition, tourism plummeted in neighboring Kumamoto, Oita and Kagoshima prefectures. Since then, few livestock farmers have been able to restart their businesses.

The government of Miyazaki and 3 other prefectures established the lottery to benefit recovering farmers and other businesses.
Lottery tickets are going for 200 yen, or about 2.6 dollars.
The top prize is 50 million yen, or about 620 thousand dollars.

Seventy-two percent of the profits will go to Miyazaki Prefecture.

This is Japan's first lottery devoted to raising rebuilding funds for reasons other than a natural disaster.

Saturday, October 15, 2011 22:21 +0900 (JST)