Kawashima Ai raising fund for Japan Earthquake Victims

Singer-songwriter Kawashima Ai (25) is currently touring around western Japan, raising funds for the earthquake relief efforts with a series of street performances. Counting her latest performance in Kobe on Sunday, she has so far raised close to 885,000 yen.

Kawashima started in Hiroshima on March 17 and has done a total of six street performances so far. For the Kobe performance, she sang three songs in front of a crowd of 350 people, including the song “Daijoubu da yo.” Because Kobe was hit the hardest by the Great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, she appealed to the crowd by asking them to empathize with the pain of the current earthquake victims in the Tohoku region.

After her performance, she asked for donations, even as little as 1 yen. She also raised funds by selling her CDs, letting buyers set their own price, as long as it was at least 300 yen. In Kobe, she collected almost 150,000 yen. She performed again the same day in Kawanishi, Hyogo, and raised another 220,000 yen.