Network Analyses of the Circulation Flow of Community Currency

The Japanese economy is emerging from a long-term recession following the bubble and is in the economic recovery phase. However, problems stemming from the widening economic disparity and the decline of local economy have risen. The local economy received a heavy blow from the reduction in public investment because of public sector reform combined with depopulation and aging. Under these circumstances, community currency attracts much attention as a tool that can simultaneously solve the twin problems of the decline of the local economy and the decay of the community. However, little research and few studies have been conducted to quantify the extent to which community currency revitalizes the local economy. We participated in the Tomamae-cho community currency experiment and investigated its circulation flow. This paper highlights the circulation flow of community currency using several network analyses. The following results are presented: (1) various distributions of the networks obey a power-law distribution; (2) the networks display the characteristics of a “Small World” similar to those of organisms, (3) directional and weighted network analyses are important; and (4) the double triangle system is effective due to its complementarity effect because commercial transactions facilitate circulation flow of community currency for non-commercial transactions, and non-commercial transactions expand commercial transactions in the local economy.