Singer Koda Kumi is taking her support for the earthquake disaster victims to the next step. Much like other artists who have been donating money, the singer hopes to comfort people with her songs, and is going to start making donations a very regular activity.

Koda will be donating all the money earned by the downloads of her very own three songs ( Read more... )

It’s been announced that the anime event, Fullmetal Alchemist Festival 2011 has been canceled due to the effects of the March 11th earthquake. The voice acting cast and musicians who sang the opening and ending themes of the anime were to attend the event.

Originally scheduled for the weekend of May 21st and 22nd in Tokyo, the planning committee ( Read more... )

TV Asahi’s president Hayakawa Hiroshi (67) indicated heavy revenue loss in a meeting on the 29th. The loss was due to specialized disaster coverage after the earthquake, in which they didn’t air any commercials for about 74 hours. The company is estimated to have lost just under 2 billion yen (approximately $24 million USD).

“We don’t have the ( Read more... )

t’s been announced that four stages of Spitz’s nation tour, “SPITZ JAMBOREE TOUR ‘Togemaru 2011′“, have been passed on due to vocalist Kusano Masamune’s sudden illness.
According to Spitz’s official site, Kusano was diagnosed with acute stress disorder on March 17th, and he needs to be under medical treatment for about three weeks.  They said that ( Read more... )

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On March 24, The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) announced their donation of 3 million yen (~$37,000) to the relief efforts.

The association has long been active in philanthropy, holding a charity event in 1995 to benefit the victims of the Kobe earthquake, and in 2008 donating 1 million dollars to the victims of the earthquake in ( Read more... )

J-pop singer Utada Hikaru (a.k.a Hikki) updated her blog with a message in both English and Japanese, regarding the Tohoku Earthquake.

In the message Hikki mentions that after the earthquake, she donated 400ml of her blood to the blood bank and made an ¥80,000,000 ($983,888 USD) donation to Japan’s Red Cross. She asks that everyone help by donating ( Read more... )

The beach stage of the ‘3rd Okinawa International Film Festival‘ held a live event called ”Yell, laugh & peace SP live“, which invited many Okinawan artists to perform. THE BOOM’s Miyazawa Kazufumi was one of the many artist-guests that night, and he performed “Shima Uta” specifically for the victims of the Great Tohoku earthquake.  ”Shima Uta” was ( Read more... )

BUSINESS

Mar 22 Japan's fish market reflects human tragedy, economic cost   The tsunami that hit Japan this month took such a huge toll on people, equipment and fish that supplies of some seafood could be cut off for a year or more, industry workers said on Tuesday. It is too early to quantify the impact on Tsukiji's turnover or ( Read more... )

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