The purpose of this paper is to define the local currency as a way of community formation instead of the definition of economists and economic anthropologists who are called "the theorists of the local currency", and to describe what sociological studies on community need to do,  through the case of the local currency "Peanuts" in Chiba.
 Theorist's definition of the local currency can be regarded as the "network for reciprocal exchanges", which means that resources  (such as manpower and goods) in a limited area are circulated in the area because many persons and  organizations in the area join with the network and they make reciprocal exchanges repeatedly in the network. But, we have to say that their definition is  optimistic because of the situations of real local currencies. Through the case of the local Currency "Peanuts ", it was found that "Peanuts" had formed a network  for reciprocal exchanges partially. Though, it was also found that "network for wau reciprocal exchanges" of "Peanuts", were very limited since people who joined with it were very few, attributively biased, and had not been much concerned with the community activities in "Nishi-Chiba area"  (the central area where "Peanuts" are used) before. Therefore, the local currency is needed to be regarded as a way of community formation,  and sociological studies on community need to research on the possibilities and limits of it as the mediation building a good  relationship between people having diverse backgrounds.

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