Takki Tidbits

Newspaper reports today confirmed that Takki was indeed in Iwate on March 24. He went to the Iwate prefectural government office at Morioka city to meet with Tasso Takuya-san, the governor of Iwate. Takki was there as one of the Marching J representatives to deliver a “mokuroku” (certificate indicating an impending gift) for 720,000,000 yen. This money was a fraction of the 920,778,588 yen total in donations that JE had collected from a year of Marching J fundraising activities.

On the same day, JE also sent TOKIO to Fukushima and HeySayJump to Miyagi to deliver other mokurokus. The remaining donation total will be sent out in May, along with however much money they make on goods at an upcoming KATTUN concert in April.

After handing the mokuroku to the governor, Takki said “The hearts of the Tohoku people are strong. The fundraising activities have stopped for the time being, but Marching J will continue until the reconstruction is complete and we would like to actively participate (in those future activities).”

According to Nikkansports, Ofunato city once played a message from Takki on its disaster relief radio… In the message, Takki said “I’ll definitely come (to Iwate).” And just like he promised, he visited Ofunato city when he was in Iwate on the 24th. He also went to Rikuzentakata city, where he visited the infamous “Kiseki no Ippon Matsu,” the one pine tree that miraculously survived the tsunami and still stands near the coast.

As a side note…

Takki had been to Iwate many times before when he was filming Yoshitsune in 2005, so he feels a deep connection to the prefecture. But in addition to his work-related visits, he has been to the disaster areas at least 20 times in the past year to do volunteer work… and all on his own time. He was asked about this at the Denpajou event and he said “I didn’t go as Takki, but as Takizawa Hideaki.” :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of the newspaper articles that we found on Twitter and Y!A :

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