Johnny & Associates cancel concerts and provide free trucks & donates Diesel Fuel for disaster relief

On March 15th, entertainment agency Johnny & Associates announced that all planned domestic concerts by their artists in March have been canceled. Instead, the transport and power unit trucks normally used for these live performances will be lent to disaster-stricken areas in Japan, free of charge.

In total, 18 performances by 6 artists have been canceled. Performances cancelled this month are: TOKIO, Tackey & Tsubasa, Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny’s Jr., Kansai Johnny’s Jr. with Yuma Nakayama, and Tomohisa Yamashita (NEWS). As well as this, Koichi Domoto’s stage show “Endless SHOCK” has cancelled shows for the rest of March.

At every concert, Johnny’s uses several 10-ton transport trucks and a few electric power unit trucks. The agency has a contract in place with truck companies for these, but since the concerts have been canceled, they announced, “If it can help with the disaster relief in stricken areas, we are prepared to lend them out for emergency transport and supplementing electricity … [For example,] transporting material aid, and providing electricity to hospitals…”

Food transport and power shortage are big problems at the affected areas, and Johnny’s says they will consider requests by local authority groups involved in the relief effort for the trucks.



In addition to Johnny & Associates donating the services of trucks to earthquake affected areas, it was just announched that J&E will now be donating 2000 liters of diesel fuel for disaster relief.

The fuel being donated this time had been purchased in advance for Yamashita Tomohisa’s Sapporo concerts on March 18th and 19th. Johnny’s has canceled all of their March performances, so the agency decided to put the newly-available fuel to good use.

The donation meets the dire need for gasoline and diesel fuel in stricken-areas, as many oil refineries had been destroyed in the disaster.

In addition, more details have been released regarding the vehicles the agency is lending out. A total of five 11-ton transport trucks and two 300-kilowatt generator vehicles, currently situated in Tokyo and Sapporo, are ready to be lent out, and drivers have also been secured. Johnny’s will work out further details once a request is made by affected areas.