AKB48 has decided to release “Dareka no Tame ni -What can I do for someone?-” a track that they have performed in concerts as a charity song. The song will be sold as a digital download and all earnings will go to the ongoing relief efforts.
Legendary rock band and all around great guys Luna Sea, have come together to release their first new work in ten years “Promise”.
“Promise” is being made available as a digital download and all proceeds will go to the victims of the “Great Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake”. When trying to best decided how to help those in need, the members of Luna Sea took the road they are famous for their music.
A truly great band, with their heart in the right place, and one worth getting to know.
As mentioned earlier Up-Front Agency is putting together an earthquake charity event called “Gabaro Nippon Ai wa Katsu“and all of it`s talent roster is taking part in the event and the recording of a song. The song is a cover of KAN’s 1990 classic, “Ai wa Katsu“ and 131 members were involved in the recording of the song, including current members and former members of Hello! Project. 98 artists will sing the track live at the upcoming charity event on April 9.
Up-Front Group and it`s stable of talent is going to hold a charity event on April 9 in Yokohama.
The event is called “Tohoku Earthquake Relief ‘Ganbarou Nippon Ai wa Katsu’ ~From Yokohama with love~”, and will be held at Yokohama’s Yamashita Park, which suffered damage during the massive Kanto earthquake of 1923.
The event will feature both Hello!Project and non-Hello!Project artists involved and at the end of the live stage ,everyone will perform KAN’s classic hit “Ai wa Katsu”. The song will also go on sale the same day as a Recochoku .
Immediately following the event, the Up-Front artists will split up into two groups and take to the streets of Yokohama to collect donations at two selected locations . All revenues from both the single and the charity drive will be given to the Japanese Red Cross Society in order to provide relief for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
Johnny’s recently completed a three day fund-raising event at Tokyo’s Yoyogi National Stadium .Every Johnny’s member took part in the three day event with SMAP, TOKIO, Arashi, KAT-TUN, NEWS, and Kanjani8 leading the event .
As the event ended SMAP’s Kimura Takuya thanked fans, saying, “Thank you to all of you for lending us your help, two days ago, yesterday, and today.”
Johnny’s Marching J will continue for as long as needed with various events planned across the country. Johnny’s is also donating their heavy lift concert trucks to transport goods to the earthquake victims.
No word how much money or goods were collected from 389,000 fans that came to the event.
Hey! Say! JUMP member Yaotome Hikaru is currently attending Johnny’s “Marching J” earthquake relief events and for him this relief event is very personal.
Yaotome`s family is currently living in evacuation shelters, company workplace and communications are difficult right now.
Hikaru said that the apartment, where his older brother and wife live in Tagajo-shi was damaged by tsunami and earthquake. The first floor was flooded and they lost their gas and water. As a result, his sister-in-law is taking refuge in his parent’s house along with her child, while his brother is residing in a company house. Hikaru admitted that he was very concerned with not only his family but for his 4-year old niece and 6-year old nephew. He also admitted that he has not been able to talk to any of his friends from his hometown Miyagi Prefecture.
Today marks the start of first Morning Musume tour with the 9th generation .What started out as a welcoming celebration for the 9th gen members on March 11 turned into the “Great Tohoku Earthquake” relief drive. Like all artists large and small Morning Musume are doing their part to bring comfort to the shattered lives.
Leader Takahashi Ai wrote on her blog a message with details of the most recent thing that the group is undertaking. After giving personal donations, the members are organizing a fundraising campaign.
Written April 2, 2011 by Ai:
“We, Morning Musume, will begin our spring tour on 4/3 at Oomiya Sonic City.
Right now, everyone is focusing on helping the victims and restoration from the “Great Tohoku Earthquake”.
We, Morning Musume, have also been thinking about what we can do to help even just the littlest bit.
After a discussion with the members, we have decided to hold fundraising activities in the lobby of the venue for as long as time allows.
We would be so grateful to everyone who contributes even a little bit at tomorrow’s venue whether you are coming or going.
Legendary rock singer Gackt has put to the side all thoughts of making albums, for the call to help with the earthquake recovery drives that are underway.
And with that he has taken on himself a number of missions and is seeking worldwide support to achieve his dreams.
He is currently starting a four-day worldwide street collection drive .
The drive runs from March 31 to April 3 . In Japan there will be 5,000 people collecting in 123 locations.
He has posted information on his web site in several languages so that international fans can help with organizing simultaneous street campaigns in major cities around the world.
Project number 2 is a worldwide video + photo project
Gackt explained this project idea through his twitter account .
Gackt- “I have a new idea here. Would you try something else with me?”. “I want messages from people all over the world. Please take a video of yourself and your message for ‘SHOW YOUR HEART!!!’ We want you to put the videos up on You Tube starting from the 31st. It will give courage to all people in the disaster areas.”
Gackt went on to explain that supporters are to upload a video of them holding a piece of paper with “SHOW YOUR HEART” written on it, along with your own message and your current location.
Those who are unable to upload the videos to YouTube themselves can send it to GACKT directly, and he and his staff will post the videos for earthquake victims to view.
You can also send a photo and message to his charity web mail. Include the name of your city and country
T.M. Revolution will be holding a nine-hour charity live on April 2, starting at 15:00/ 3:00PM. The program called “Hisaichi ni YELL wo Okurou! Ima Koso Tachiagare NIPPON! STAND UP! JAPAN“, will be streamed live on GyaO! and by Nico Nico in a Live Broadcast.
T.M. Revolution will be supported by co-hosts/event support such as SHOGO (175R), Tsuchiya Reo (RAG FAIR, Zboned Zubon), Micro (HOME MADE Kazoku), Ono Mayumi, Tahara Souichirou, Shibata Hidetsugu (Untouchable), Tokito Ami, and Mutou Keiji (All Japan Pro Wrestling) and many more as yet unnamed .
T.M. Revolution originally planed for this to be a live attendance event , however with the continuing energy problems from the earthquake ,it was decided that a nine hour live event may put unneeded strain on the power grid and that power would best served to go to homes .
Instead the event will be live streaming and a donation project “STAND UP! JAPAN Chuou Kyoudoubokinkai“, started by T.M. Revolution will be used instead of live event ticket revenues.
If you are able to view these services and want to watch the broadcast and support the charity.
International Wota has added a number of new items to the auction list, from a number of agencies and groups.
Please help support the recovery, over 11,000 citizens will never again enjoy the sound of music and many thousands more are yet to be found. Hundreds of thousands have lost everything they own, not to mention several family members.
A new movie video clip has been made public on Youtube by SKE48. It was a video clip for the song "Ai no Kazu" performed by the group's Team K II, which is a B-side track to the single released earlier this month "Banzai Venus". Originally, "Ai no Kazu" has no PV created for it. But a video clip was made now, in hopes of the song becoming a moral support (no matter how small it maybe) to those facing difficult times due to the earthquake in northeast Japan, recently.
It was not a high cost production of any sort, just a simple video of SKE48 girls singing on their theatre stage with song lyrics running at the bottom. All for creating a new media made available for circulation.
SKE48 will reopen their theatres on the 31st of March, where on that same day Team S will perform and all proceeds from that performance will go straight to charity.
AKB48 Donates Again 600 Million Yen + 218 Location CM Campaign.
Fresh off the heels of their very generous 500 million yen donation to the Japanese Red Cross, AKB48 has made a second donation, this time for 600 million yen (approximately $7.37 million USD) to the Japanese Red Cross.
AKB48 announced this wonderful gift at a press conference at the Third Okinawa International University Film Festival on the 26th. They also announced the group would be the promotion campaign group for the upcoming election for Tokyo’s new governor. AKB48 will run ads at 218 locations across Tokyo and as part of the campaign, their single “Heavy Rotation”; will be shown once every six minutes starting April 1 at the 218 locations.
The staff of International Wota have put together with a number of bloggers to create a charity auction to help with the relief funds for recent earthquake in Japan. It`s not only your chance to get some create Idol goods from H!P ,Johnny’s and others as time goes on , but to help out people in need.
International Wota`s charity auction will see all proceeds from the sales of these items going to the American Red Cross who are working with the Japan Red Cross to aid in the Japan relief effort .
Please head to International Wota`s charity auction page to find more information about the auction and keep checking to see when the auctions will open for your region.
AKB48 has teamed up with Shueisha, Inc. and Weekly Playboy for a very special donation charity and for once in your idol fandom life loyalties should be set to the side.
AKB48 has teamed up with Shueisha, Inc. and Weekly Playboy for a very special donation charity and they need your help.
Every time this special AKB48 video is played, a donation will be made by the two companies. The more the video is played, the more the companies will donate to Japan’s earthquake recovery to meet the needs of people who have lost everything.
This is the second charity that AKB48 has set up since the earthquake and the group and management recently in their first charity donated 500million yen.
The video features AKB48 members each saying an encouraging message, such as “Ganbare Nippon!”
Please help the nation recover by showing your support and helping promote this video.
Right now, the Japanese music industry is in a slow down due to the results of the earthquake and power related problems. As a result, there is not a lot to report in news outside of charity activities.
This slowdown is expected to last into early to mid April, so with that I am thinking of
doing some extra TV shows.Shows I have never aired, doing some past idol history. This may also give some time to get the other sections updated such as JRock and KPop
Right now due to the industry slow down there is not a lot going on in any Japanese music genre so there is really little to cover . Everyone is thinking charity and energy saving plans, Johnny’s for example when they become active again in April will tour with reduce lighting.
As always, keep the nation in your heart as many difficult and painful days are ahead.
The following are some groups, agencies who have given for earthquake relief
Donation Money
Entertainment agency FLaMme, has donated 20 million yen (~$240,000 USD) they handle actresses Toda Erika, Hirosue Ryoko, Koyuki, and Kichise Michiko.
J-rock band GLAY donated 20 million yen (~$240,000 USD)
Concert/CD/ Funds Donations
Kansai based Band Dear Loving donated part of their live show revenue and collected from fans 82 boxes of colored pencils, 10 hand towels, 8 mini tote bags, 84 t-shirts, and 400 body warmers.
KPop Super Group KARA will be donating all their income from their new single “Jet Coaster Love” towards disaster relief efforts.
X JAPAN’s leader, YOSHIKI, auctioned off his beloved “crystal concert piano”
Items
Johnny & Associates announced that all their transport and power unit trucks normally used for live performances would be lent to disaster-stricken areas in Japan, free of charge.
Hamasaki Ayumi will collaborate with fashion magazine ViVi to produce a charity T-shirt for disaster relief.
The shirt will be sold on the online shop mu-mo from March 17 to March 31, and is open to international fans http://shop.mu-mo.net/avx/sv/list1?jsiteid=MSG&categ_id=5658
EXILE is sending 50,000 bottles of drinking water
Charity Songs, Free Courage Songs
Folk Singer Suzumoku has released a charity song called “Bokura wa Ningen da” (We are Humans)
Suzumoku -“I’m not sure whether or not this song will give the earthquake victims courage, but I want to give people this song without worrying about things like copyright”.
Pop duo Sukima Switch posted on their official YouTube channel titled, “Kanade March 13, 2011
Sokabe Keiichi has released his new song “Haru no Arashi” (The Storm of Spring) free of charge
The list of artists making donations is to large for me to cover them all .AKB48 donation deserves it`s own post as it shows why they are the leaders in the female idol genre.
Legendary rocker GACKT is putting together an emergency charity. The charity is called “SHOW YOUR HEART” and GACKT has said that the charity will be used to collect funds for disaster relief for the 2011 Japanese earthquake.
GACKT- “We decided to organize the charity as it was something that even we could start in order to help. We want everyone to lend us their strength. Although individuals may not be able to do much, if everyone works together, it becomes a lot of power. In this sort of time, we need to have the courage to lend a helping hand.”
The list of stars taking part in the project is growing by the hour and include Shinya (LUNA SEA), Fujiwara Norika, DAIGO (BREAKERZ), and Haruna Ai
Donations are being done by direct deposit in Japan as GACKT has set up a bank account for the charity. The money will be distributed to victims through the Japanese Red Cross and local community relief centers.
T.M. Revolution [Nishikawa Takanori] is setting up a charity live concert.
The concert is scheduled for March 30 and will be held at Zepp Tokyo .TMR plans to set up a live stream for the event along with a website for donations.
Please note -that this event is still far from settled .TMR said that there are other artists who have expressed their support and that he is looking for people who are willing to provide broadcasting equipment, and websites that will host the stream and auction.
From TMR on the event- “It’s unclear how much or even whether I can do it, and I know that I will probably face difficulties when I actually put it in motion, but I want to put all my energy into it.”
Dorothy Little Happy Update
Sendai Idol Group Dorothy Little Happy
DLH Leader Kana reported they are ok, promotions for them has stopped for now as they focus on recovery.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone that has commented since the earthquake happened. It means a lot that you have taken the time to do so.
I want to give a site news update, while I can.
I don`t know when music news will start again on this site .To be honest the nation is only thinking about rescue , survival , and the television is only showing every second of the rescue operations ,casualties and important needed news ,regular programming stopped the second the earthquake happened . If you read what I wrote yesterday, my mind is not thinking of music right now, idols or my own.
There is nothing music related to report, the nation is only thinking about rescue and survival. Concerns on CD release delays, Oricon rankings, sales figures, etc are all misplaced thoughts, because no one is thinking about that now, only rescue and survival.
Concerns instead should be on the missing, concerns should be on Sendai`s Dorothy Little Happy - only two members out of five have reached out to their fans. There are many problems in Sendai right now.
For now Japan is a much different place then it was a few days ago, there are many difficult days ahead
This site will move forward as the nation moves forward, I just don`t know when that will be.
I ask you for patience and understanding for now, and let us walk forward together each day one step at a time, taking what the day gives.
If this situation wasn't bad enough a new Earthquake has hit .This new Earthquake was in Nagano-Niigata Prefectures measuring upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Nagano Prefecture, lower 6 in Niigata .
The focus of the predawn quake was at a depth of 10 kilometers. Nagano police said they have not received any immediate reports of major damage.
Note-the photo is from the Sendai quake after the Tsunami
