In small and large amounts, Japanese young and old responded to last year's earthquake and tsunami disaster with an outpouring of donations.
In small and large amounts, Japanese young and old responded to last year's earthquake and tsunami disaster with an outpouring of donations.
A survey has found that 77 percent of Japanese aged 15 or older opened their pocketbooks to assist victims.
The finding was by the Japan Fundraising Association, a nonprofit group whose activities are limited to collecting donations.
It said donations from Japan and overseas came to 600 billion yen ($7.08 billion).
The survey was based on interviews with the Japanese Red Cross Society, local governments, nonprofit organizations and other institutions which accept donations, as well as an Internet poll that received 7,000 responses.
The JFRA announced the results in its “Giving Japan 2012--Annual Report on Giving and Volunteering” from the publishing section of a Keidanren group company. Keidanren is Japan's largest business group.
According to the JFRA, donations made to the Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest of Japan amounted to 361.8 billion yen as of October this year.
It said 182.9 billion yen was donated to the hard-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, site of reactor meltdowns triggered by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake. Nonprofit organizations raised 20.1 billion yen.
The JFRA said the largest group of contributors--27 percent--donated between 10,000 yen and 50,000 yen. Twenty percent donated between 1,000 yen and 2,000 yen, while 16 percent donated between 5,000 yen and 10,000 yen.
Five percent of the contributors donated 50,000 yen or more.
Donations from overseas totaled 119.4 billion yen in 2011, of which 53.3 billion yen came from the United States and 17.9 billion yen from Taiwan.