Featured

donation

X Japan’s Yoshiki apologizes for donating “only” 10 million yen after hometown is hit by typhoon

Legendary J-rocker officially reveals his hometown for the first time.

Read More

Video game maker/Kyoto Animation creative partner Key donates 10 million yen to arson relief fund

Clannad creators hope Kyoto Animation will continue to “give courage to people in Japan and throughout the world.”

Read More

X Japan leader Yoshiki donates 10 million yen to Kyoto Animation arson recovery fund

Legendary musician expresses deep gratitude to anime industry and its fans.

Read More

Kyoto Animation official donation account raises over 1 billion yen (US$10.1 million) in one week

Over 50,000 donors have contributed, but recovery costs could still be several times the amount.

Read More

Japanese netizen backs out of initial promise to donate one million yen to Palestinian refugees

Noble goal of promoting music education shadowed by personal needs.

Read More

Out-of-cash otaku? In Japan, you can exchange your blood for cool anime posters this summer

If you’re an anime fan, it turns out you’ve got red gold pumping through your veins!

Read More

Pro gamer Daigo Umehara donates tournament winnings to New York University like a shoryuken Santa

Daigo Umehara may be famous for playing video game Street Fighter as Evil Ryu, but he just did a very good deed.

Read More

Japanese adult satellite network ERO24TV is currently donating money to an AIDS awareness charity based on how long you can keep your eyes closed in front of your monitor—they’re not going to make it easy though!

Read More

93-year-old Japanese woman gifts ambulance worth 2.7 million yen to local fire station

When you’re ill or your life is in danger, it’s natural to feel gratitude towards those who aided your recovery or saved your life. But what do you do to show your gratitude?

One elderly woman from Nara Prefecture, Japan, felt so grateful to the ambulances who often help her, that she decided to donate a brand new ambulance to her local fire station. And it wasn’t just any ambulance – this was a top-of-the-line model worth 2.7 million yen (over US$22,000)!

Read More

Unknown person leaves thousands in cash and gift certificates in dozens of mailboxes in Japan

What if you found an unmarked envelope full of money in your mailbox? Would you keep it?

On March 20 and 21, exactly 30 households were faced with this very dilemma as an unknown person deposited a total of 760,000 yen (US$7,420) in the mailboxes of an apartment complex in Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture. The largest sum found in a single mailbox was 137,000 yen (US$1,339). Just 10 days earlier, mysterious envelopes were deposited at an additional 30 homes in Kawasaki City, 486 km (300 mi) away. This time, the envelopes contained gift certificates with monetary values ranging from 5,000 yen (US$48) to tens of thousands of yen (hundreds of US dollars).

If this sounds like easy money to you, you might be surprised to learn what half of the residents chose to do with the cash.

Read More

Used undies, rotten food, expired meds and other disaster “aid” Japan doesn’t want

Although it has been more than two and a half years since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, much of the area is still in need of disaster aid for the recovery efforts. But before you look around your house for items to donate, take a look at what volunteer groups, local governments and aid recipients themselves would rather you keep at home. And you might be very surprised to what else Twitter users have deemed the most “unnecessary things at a disaster zone.”

Read More

Two Years on, Japan Remembers Disaster Aid from The US, Taiwan and Bhutan

On 8 March 2013, in the second round of the World Baseball Classic, Japan beat Taiwan 4-3. It was a close-fought game, but the real hot topic on the day was the large number of Japanese spectators holding up handmade signs to express their gratitude to Taiwan for humanitarian aid given in response to the catastrophic March 11, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which devastated northeastern Japan.

The gesture was organized beforehand through social media. Japanese fans reasoned that “a lot of Taiwanese people will be watching the game,” and so it would be a great opportunity to get the message across by showing simple words of gratitude on placards, broadcast on Taiwanese TV.

Read More

The Masked Philanthropist is Back! Japanese Orphanage Receives Mystery Donation from Tiger Mask

On Christma Day, 2010, an anonymous donor left ten 30,000 yen ($360) randoseru backpacks outside a Japanese orphanage in Gunma Prefecture. Attached to the bags was a card signed by Naoto Date, the secret identity of fictional Japanese wrestler Tiger Mask, who, in the popular 1960s manga by the same name, fought for orphans after being raised in an orphanage himself.

The story was picked up by the press and a week later, on January 1, 2011, a similar donation of backpacks was left at an orphanage in Kangawa Prefecture, again with a note signed by Naoto Date. By January 11, over 100 “Tiger Mask” donations, ranging from backpacks to toys, food, and monetary gifts, had been reported at various children’s facilities across the country.

After that, little was heard from Tiger Mask, aside a second donation to the original orphanage in Gunma on Christmas Day, 2011, which failed to inspire a wave of charity as it had the previous year.

Has Tiger Mask forgotten about the children of Japan?

Read More

Man Leaves Box of Fish at Japanese Orphanage (This is a Good Thing)

Just a few weeks after the heartwarming story of an evil villain donating backpacks to a Japanese orphanage, comes another tale of anonymous Japanese winter philanthropy, this time from Toyama prefecture.

At around 2:30 pm on December 8, a female staff member at an orphanage in Takaoka city noticed a man pulling up in a white vehicle and placing three large boxes, two styrofoam and one cardboard, at the base of a telephone pole near the entrance. The man, who seemed to be in his 30s, beckoned the staff member over with his hand and, without saying anything, left the boxes and drove off.

In the cardboard box were five daikon, or Japanese radishes. In the styrofoam boxes were two large, plump yellowtail, accompanied by a letter that read: “The men of the ocean have braved billowing waves, putting their lives on the line for these kan-buri (winter yellowtail).” The letter was signed: “Yours truly  A Man Who Loves the Ocean”.

At first, vegetables and fish may seem like a rather strange combination to leave outside an orphanage, but the man had actually gifted the children with a luxurious winter feast: winter yellowtail are a major seasonal delicacy that normally sell for anywhere between 30-40,000 yen ($350-$480) a fish. 

Read More

Evil Villain “Colonel Muska” Leaves Japanese Orphanage Stacks of Goodies

Here’s a news story that managed to warm even our cynical, Internet-jaded hearts to the core.

A man going by the name of Colonel Muska, the nefarious villain from Studio Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky, has made a surprise donation to an orphanage in Tokushima city on the island of Shikoku, Japan.

The mysterious stranger left a pile of expensive leather school backpacks as well as a copy of the Ghibli feature film on DVD outside the orphanage, along with a letter simply saying “Please think of this as an early Christmas present. Yours, Colonel Muska”

Read More

Softbank CEO Donates US$500,000 to Hurricane Sandy Relief, Becomes Embroiled in Twitter War with Some Guy

Who doesn’t love a Twitter war?  This wonderful modern age we live in lets celebrities make snide comments to and about each other as we all read along.  And with the unprecedented interactivity social networks you too could be arguing with Ashton Kutcher about something!

Last week mobile phone mogul Masayoshi Son, who has a history of large donations, offered US$500,000 through Softbank to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy in North America and then tweeted about it.  This act of philanthropy irked a twitter user by the name of o44o.  Feeling that this was an act of blatant advertising through the use of a good deed he decided to voice his opinion to Mr. Son.

Read More

Starbucks Japan Unveils Posh Leather Cup Sleeves as Part of Charity Drive

Starbucks Japan has teamed up with Spanish luxury leather designer Loewe to produce a range of sexy leather sleeves for its paper coffee cups, it was announced yesterday.

The limited-edition sleeves are part of a programme designed to provide financial support to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami that stuck north-eastern Japan in March last year.

Read More