As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, four days after the earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 and with the continuing drip, drip, drip of nerve-shaking news from the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima forming background noise to life in Tokyo, I see on the BBC news feed that Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is urging "all the great musicians and singers in the world" to get together and do a concert for Japan.
Now, we can argue about the merits of a gang of wealthy rock and pop stars going to the trouble of organizing a fundraising concert that will likely amass only a fraction of the money that Adams and his celebrity friends could cough up from their own pocket change, or the benefits in terms of raising awareness of a tragedy that is already being broadcast pretty much nonstop on every major news channel and filling the front pages of every major newspaper, but right now the parallel world that Adams and other members of the pop glitterati inhabit is the last thing on the minds of the people of Japan.
However, in a number of small, understated ways, the music community in Japan has already been engaging with the situation, providing practical and emotional support where it can.