Meguro Ward, a research facility in Tokyo that specializes in parasites, has been attracting a lot of attention lately, following several major developments this summer, including a visit by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and An online donation drive was immediately included.
The Meguro Parasitological Museum, which has experienced a drop in visitor numbers due to the COVID-19 crisis, hopes that this will be a good opportunity to increase interest in the world of parasites, which the general public is not familiar with.
The Parasite Museum was founded in 1953 by Dr. Satro Kamigai, a physician who was the museum's first director. He invested his money in establishing a museum to research parasites and raise awareness and awareness about parasitic diseases. The museum has a collection of about 60,000 specimens from Japan and abroad.
In keeping with Kamigai's philosophy - "no money should be paid for education and awareness" - there is no entrance fee to the museum. Funding to operate the museum comes from investment by the foundation that manages the museum, profits from merchandise sold at the museum, and donations.
The number of museum visitors, from more than 50,000 a year before the pandemic, fell by half in fiscal 2020. As a result, museum revenue was expected to decrease by approximately ¥6 million in fiscal 2020, which would reduce museum revenue by approximately $6 million in 2020. Target to collect donations of ¥5 million from fiscal year 2020.
Although the goal for that fiscal year was achieved, the next fiscal year fell short with only ¥4.5 million, thus, they appealed for financial support on their website.
It attracted the attention of someone with a large social media following in the field of biology, who took to Twitter on August 21 to ask for donations to the museum. The appeal was shared more than 30,000 times, with donations ballooning from around ¥2 million to more than ¥5 million within the same month this fiscal year. As of September 10, donations totaled ¥6 million.
Bill Gates is also interested in museums, he has worked to fight infectious diseases around the world through his charitable foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He visited Japan to receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in August this year and stopped by the museum during the visit.
At the museum, he became interested in an exhibit of parasites that can be transmitted from pigs to humans, and he also bought a ballpoint pen and a strap with Miyairi-gai freshwater clams as hosts for the parasites. work on
After the visit, Gates posted about the visit to the museum on his Twitter account, saying "I saw what is the longest tapeworm in the world".
The number of hits to the museum's website, which normally gets about 1,000 hits a day, jumped to about 7,000 two days later.
"We will make the most of the recent focus on our museum to focus more than ever on research, education, and increased awareness, as well as services for visitors," said museum director Toshiaki Kuramochi, 66.
