On August 1, Mercari’s public policy blog Merpoli celebrated its sixth year anniversary.
We would like to extend our gratitude to our readers and everyone who has supported Merpoli year after year.
Over the past 6 years, we have published 447 articles.
We published our 350th article on our fifth anniversary last year, which would mean that we wrote almost 100 articles this year!
Mercari started Merpoli on August 1, 2018 as a way to publish information about the company’s public policy initiatives. The first article we wrote was titled “Announcing Merpoli: Mercari and Merpay’s Public Policy Blog” to commemorate the occasion.
Compared to six years ago when we first began, it feels as though people are now more aware of our work in the public policy sector and are more knowledgeable about what goes into public affairs and rule making.
We started Merpoli with the belief that creating solutions for societal issues should not just be the responsibility of politicians and law makers but requires collaboration between public and private institutes, including private companies such as ourselves. In order for us to contribute to solving societal problems and growing the economy, we believed that Mercari had to work with opinion leaders in each field and had an obligation to keep society updated on the latest trends and our future goals.
Over the past six years, through publishing information about the public policy field, we have been able to increase people’s understanding of the field and public affairs and rule making.
Going forward, Merpoli will not only be a place where we publish information about our own efforts but also a place where we can deepen our relationship with industries and those we work with, giving people insight into our government, policy, and industry initiatives, as well as policy proposals, public-private partnerships, and social contribution projects. We want to actively communicate information about these initiatives in an easy-to-understand manner.
Adding “Education Initiatives” and “English” tabs
For our sixth anniversary, we decided to add an “Education Initiatives” tab and an “English” tab to Merpoli’s navigation bar.
The “Education Initiatives” tab features articles about Mercari’s past education-related initiatives at schools.
Mercari Group’s education initiatives
Mercari has implemented a number of education-focused initiatives at a variety of different schools. Currently, our main initiatives are “Mercari Education” and project-based learning (PBL) programs.
Mercari Education is Mercari's web portal offering programs that can be freely downloaded for use at schools or at home.
The programs focus on teaching students the importance of goods and money, how to use the Internet safely and securely, and how companies can help solve social issues.
Mercari Education
Our free educational programs provide hands-on activities to teach lessons on the value of goods and money that go beyond textbooks. Through releasing these programs, we hope to reach as many students as possible and change their perception of the world.
Our other initiative focuses on project-based learning (PBL) programs.
Since 2022, Mercari has been running a project-based learning program using Mercari Shops where students can experience selling real items on an e-commerce platform. This year, we started a new program that educates students about creating a circular society. In this program, students collect reusable items, upcycle them, and then sell their new creations.
The “English” tab features all Merpoli articles that have been translated into English.
We are making an effort to publish more Merpoli articles in English and have published seven English articles so far.
We want to post more information in English so that people at Mercari and throughout the world can learn about our initiatives.
Articles about our work with local governments, our donation initiative, and interviews
In addition to articles on education initiatives, Merpoli also features articles that give an overview of our partnerships with local governments and our donation initiative. We have also published some interview articles.
Mercari Group’s partnerships with local governments
The page above lists the articles we have posted about our work with local governments and is updated regularly, so please have a look if you are interested in learning about these partnerships.
Recently, we have received widespread attention about our initiative that allows local governments to sell oversized garbage and equipment on Mercari Shops. You can find a list of local governments that sell on Mercari Shops below.
Mercari Group’s donation initiative
The page above lists the articles we have posted about our donation initiative and is updated regularly, so please have a look if you are interested in learning about this initiative.
Mercari Donation has now partnered with over 100 organizations. You can find the full list published on Merpoli as well. You can also donate to these organizations directly.
We also work with charitable organizations to provide support to areas affected by disaster. We are currently providing support to areas affected by the 2024 Noto earthquake and areas affected by heavy rain and flooding.
Merpoli Interviews
This page lists interviews we have conducted with people such as members of parliament, heads of local governments, municipal employees, industry professionals, and Mercari employees.
These interviews contain a lot of interesting content, so please give them a read.
Policy planning-related press releases and media appearances
We also have a page listing media appearances related to projects undertaken by the policy planning team and related press releases.
While the goal of Merpoli is to communicate our efforts directly to readers, these media reports are also a great chance to learn about the various initiatives of the policy planning team from the perspective of other companies.
We now have a large number of articles on Merpoli and hope that these articles will be of use to you all. As mentioned above, we have created pages that provide an overview of our initiatives and updated our tabs to make the information on Merpoli more easily accessible, and we will continue to think of ways to improve going forward.
We look forward to your continued support of Merpoli.
