"National Science Museum Crowdfunds to Pay Bills"

"National Science Museum Crowdfunds to Pay Bills"

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Welcome to "Learn Japanese from the News."
　
Join us as we learn Japanese and about the country through Japanese news stories. Today's headline is…
　
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国立科学博物館（こくりつかがくはくぶつかん）「お金（かね）が足（た）りないので1億円（おくえん）集（あつ）めたい」
　
"National Science Museum Crowdfunds to Pay Bills"
This news story was published on NEWS WEB EASY's website on August 8th.
　
Now let's go over some vocab words that will help us understand what's going on.
　
博物館（はくぶつかん）
museum
　
クラウドファンディング
crowdfunding
This is an English loanword that refers to funding a project by collecting donations from a large number of people via the internet.
　
標本（ひょうほん）
specimen
This refers to individual animals or plants that are considered typical and used for scientific study or display.
　
Now let's keep these words in mind as we listen.
　
「国立科学博物館（こくりつかがくはくぶつかん）は8月（がつ）7日（なのか）、「インターネットのクラウドファンディングで1億円（おくえん）を集（あつ）めることにしました」と発表（はっぴょう）しました。電気代（でんきだい）などが高（たか）くなっています。倉庫（そうこ）では、温度（おんど）や湿度（しつど）を同（おな）じにしておくことが必要（ひつよう）で、電気代（でんきだい）などが2年前（ねんまえ）より2億円（おくえん）ぐらい増（ふ）えそうです。新型（しんがた）コロナウイルスの問題（もんだい）で、博物館（はくぶつかん）に来（く）る人（ひと）が少（すく）なくなったことも原因（げんいん）で、お金（かね）が足（た）りなくなっています。
博物館（はくぶつかん）の人（ひと）は「これからも、博物館（はくぶくかん）にあるたくさんの物（もの）を守（まも）って、大切（たいせつ）な標本（ひょうほん）などを集（あつ）めていきたいと思（おも）っています」と話（はな）しています。
クラウドファンディングを始（はじ）めてから9時間（じかん）で、1億円（おくえん）集（あつ）まりました。」
　
The National Museum of Nature and Science decided to launch a crowdfunding drive with a target of 100 million yen in order to help cover its operational costs. They were able to reach that target in just one day.
　
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Now we'll break down the following sentence from the story.
　
国立科学博物館（こくりつかがくはくぶつかん）は8月（がつ）7日（なのか）、「インターネットのクラウドファンディングで1億円（おくえん）を集（あつ）めることにしました」と発表（はっぴょう）しました。
　
On August 7th, the National Museum of Nature and Science announced, "We have decided to raise 100 million yen through internet crowdfunding."
　
The word 国立（こくりつ）in 国立科学博物館（こくりつかがくはくぶつかん）means "national," which refers to an organization or facility established and run by the state.
　
Our story today is about a museum, but there are also national universities, research institutes, parks, libraries, and so on.
　
By contrast, if something is owned and managed by a prefectural or municipal government, we say 公立（こうりつ）, that is, "public."
　
We also heard the phrase 1億円（おくえん）を集（あつ）めることにしました.
　
When you want to say that you've made a decision to do something or not to do something, take the plain form of the verb and add ことにする.
　
When you want to convey a new decision, say ことにします. If you made the decision some time ago or are already in the process of acting on it, use the past tense of する and say ことにしました.

In terms of today's story, the museum already made the decision to crowdfund and is now asking for support. That's why the past tense is used: 集（あつ）めることにしました.
　
OK, that's about it for today.
　
Before we go, a quick update. As of right now the museum has collected over seven times their initial crowdfunding goal. It's inspiring to see that people clearly care about science.
　
It is. Hopefully this helps the museum preserve their collection of specimens for ongoing research and future projects.
　
Indeed. They're saying they'll announce how the money will be used in the near future.
　
All right, be sure to tune in next time for more!
　
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