The town of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, is closely associated with the Girls und Panzer anime, and recently Oarai has experienced a dramatic increase in local tax donations since introducing a line of Girls und Panzer goods as rewards.

The reward program works as follows: submitting a local tax donation of 10,000 yen ($85.30 US) or more earns the tax payer points that can be redeemed via a special website in exchange for various local specialty goods. Oarai is offering rewards such as Girls und Panzer branded gift sets containing items such as Shinto talismans, tea, sake, crackers, sweets, snacks, and bottled water.

Although the news doesn't specifically credit the Girls und Panzer reward goods as the source of the new windfall of tax donations, it should be noted that prior to this promotion, Oarai collected about 7,630,000 yen (about $65,000 US) in tax donations for the entire previous year.

Since the new promotion introducing the Girls und Panzer reward goods, the town has collected 160,000,000 yen (about $1.36 million US) in just the month of December of 2015, leading the Japanese fan press to speculate that otaku are responsible for the surge in donations.

Never underestimate the allure of Anglerfish Team.

Sources:

Hachima Kikō

Ibaraki News

Furusato Choice

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.