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This paper considers social marketing from a critical perspective. The paper traces the history of the donation system named 'hometown tax' that the Japanese government introduced to promote local revitalization of relatively marginal communities. Owing to the lavish reciprocal gifts to "donors" by the administrators of these communities, the system resulted in a quasi-market that allowed donors to avoid paying taxes and to receive special benefits. Our analysis reveals the divergence of the intents and effects of this social marketing intervention. The findings indicate that during social marketing attempts to carry out effective and well-intentioned interventions, which social marketing research has always advocated, societal perversions may occur sometimes. This is owing to the neoliberal governmentality, which is behind such interventions, and which causes unintended actions and consequences that distract from the ideal social good, even when interventions are formulated and launched with laudable intentions. This paper indicates the critical issues that social marketing should address and provides a reflective viewpoint on social marketing. It points to pitfalls and problems in effective interventions for individual behavioral change and social change.

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The hometown tax is a new tax payment scheme introduced in Japan in 2008 that aims to redistribute taxes that have tended to concentrate in urban centers such as Tokyo. This scheme has seen very rapid growth since 2015 when documents to be submitted for tax returns were made simpler. Previous studies of hometown tax have focused on case analyses, and there is a lack of development of analytical frameworks and insights into its users. Hence, this study aims to increase understanding of this scheme as donation-based and reward-based crowdfunding with users acting as donors and consumers, along with their motivations to participate. First, this research considers the motivations of donors and consumers by reviewing prior research on charitable giving and cause-related marketing. Second, a conceptual framework for understanding donors and consumers who utilize hometown tax is developed. Finally, this study indicates practical marketing implications for local governments.

Ghost in the Shell' was first produced as a Japanese animated film in 1995. The movie and its sequels established a cult status due to the philosophical depth in portraying the posthuman condition. It was remade as a live action Hollywood film in 2017; and this version failed at the box office. One reason had to be the "whitewashing" issue-that the female protagonist was played by a white actress in the Hollywood movie, rather than a Japanese character as in the original anime. This review essay critically discusses issues of whitewashing, racial 'identity' , the shifting identity of the 'cyborg' , and the constitutive tension between the human and the machine.