{"id":66798,"date":"2026-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66798"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:47:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:47:05","slug":"japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/syncable.biz\/campaign\/9574\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nice Nature Memorial Donation<\/a> is a month-long yearly campaign that solicits monetary donations to support retired racehorses. Titled after the Japanese thoroughbred of the same name, the campaign was able to solicit over $1.8 million USD in the course of ten years, and a big part of it seems to be thanks to the horse\u2019s appearance in several works belonging to the Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30ca\u30a4\u30b9\u30cd\u30a4\u30c1\u30e3\u30fb\u30d0\u30fc\u30b9\u30c7\u30fc\uff08\u30e1\u30e2\u30ea\u30a2\u30eb\uff09\u30c9\u30cd\u30fc\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3<br><br>2017\u5e74\u300019\u4e078500\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2018\u5e74\u300067\u4e077500\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2019\u5e74\u3000108\u4e077088\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2020\u5e74\u3000176\u4e073900\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2021\u5e74\u30003582\u4e079730\u5186\u2190\u30a6\u30de\u5a18\u30a2\u30d7\u30ea\u958b\u59cb<br>\u2193<br>2022\u5e74\u30005412\u4e077293\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2023\u5e74\u30007402\u4e072066\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2024\u5e74\u30007488\u4e079338\u5186<br>\u2193<br>2025\u5e74\u30005513\u4e071605\u5186\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uU60KlRjwv\">pic.twitter.com\/uU60KlRjwv<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u7af6\u99ac\u30a4\u30f3\u30d5\u30a9\u30e1\u30fc\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u30af\u30e9\u30d6(\u500b\u4eba\u3067\u904b\u55b6) (@keiba_info_club) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/keiba_info_club\/status\/2055577746617598220?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 16, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially called the \u201cNice Nature Birthday Donation\u201d, the fund was established on April 16, 2017, in honor of Nice Nature\u2019s 29th birthday. While total donations over the next four years were steady, they increased dramatically from 1.08 million JPY (roughly $11k USD) in 2020 to 35.8 million JPY ($225k USD) in 2021. This coincides with the Japanese launch of Umamusume: Pretty Derby on February 24, 2021. Though Nice Nature passed away on May 30, 2023, at the age of 35, the campaign was renamed and continues to live on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tracen Academy Student Introduction #4: Nice Nature\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zmZdaUo_fmU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This year\u2019s Nice Nature Memorial Donation solicited more than 48 million JPY ($302k USD) \u2013 195% of the initial goal \u2013 in just over a month. Retired Racehorses Association representative director Kyoko Numata <a href=\"https:\/\/syncable.biz\/campaign\/9574\/report\/13682#campaign-tabs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stated on the campaign\u2019s official webpage<\/a> that there was a \u201ctremendous response\u201d from international supporters thanks to the 2025 global release of Umamusume: Pretty Derby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the donations, the association will be able to take in and foster more retired racehorses. More foster parent members (i.e., racehorse caregivers) will also be recruited to provide individual assistance to each horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/cyberagents-game-business-sees-106-3-rise-in-operating-profit-and-3-5x-increase-in-global-sales-thanks-to-umamusume-pretty-derbys-worldwide-success\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>CyberAgent\u2019s game business sees 106.3% rise in operating profit and 3.5x increase in global sales thanks to Umamusume: Pretty Derby\u2019s worldwide success<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/animation-studio-behind-umamusume-pretty-derby-and-sentenced-to-be-a-hero-anime-announces-insolvency-amidst-3-54-million-deficit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Animation studio behind Umamusume: Pretty Derby and Sentenced to Be a Hero anime announces insolvency amidst $3.54 million deficit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year&#8217;s initial goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":66800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-66798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year&#039;s initial goal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year&#039;s initial goal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year's initial goal.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year's initial goal.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-05-18T15:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/"},"author":{"name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31"},"headline":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-05-18T15:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/"},"wordCount":315,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/","name":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-18T15:00:00+00:00","description":"The Nice Nature Memorial Donation celebrates another successful campaign, collecting 195% of this year's initial goal.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260518-66798-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":675,"caption":"Umamusume Pretty Derby"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-retired-horse-donation-fund-raises-over-1-8-million-usd-in-the-past-10-years-largely-thanks-to-the-popularity-of-umamusume\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Japan\u2019s retired horse donation fund raises over $1.8 million USD in the past 10 years, largely thanks to the popularity of Umamusume\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2812ca8facd5f161edfbc531cf81eb31","name":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/display-pic-100x100.jpg","caption":"Carlos \"Zoto\" Zotomayor"},"description":"Automaton West writer. Zoto has been playing video games for 30+ years now but has only recently come to grips with PC gaming. When he isn't playing video games, he watches romance anime and gets mad when his best girl never wins.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/carlos-zotomayor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66801,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66798\/revisions\/66801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}