An animated short film about an adolescent gay couple has gone viral, garnering over 6 million views on YouTube in just two days. "In a Heartbeat" follows a boy addressing his sexuality after falling in love with a male classmate in elementary school. The short ...
The National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo is using crowdfunding to create two additional clean rooms needed to treat pediatric cancer. The center is aiming to raise ¥15 million by Sept. 8. Donations will be returned if the center fails to reach ...
An Okinawa resident, originally from the U.S., is calling for donations to publish a manga book and an animated film through crowdfunding to promote the unique history and culture in the prefecture, which historically had been the independent Ryukyu Kingdom until the late 1800s. The ...
Sanrio Entertainment has said it will offer the right to "date" its popular character Hello Kitty to people who donate ¥100,000 each through crowdfunding for a summer festival to be held at the firm's Sanrio Puroland theme park in Tama, Tokyo. Contributors to the online ...
A Kanagawa woman who started a crowdfunding project last year to bankroll her search for a husband is on course to reap the ultimate dividend. After meeting 11 suitors in the space of a month through the formal Japanese matchmaking tradition of omiai, 27-year-old Tomoko ...
Thousands of fans of SMAP, one of Japan's most popular pop groups that is set to break up as the year ends, placed a newspaper advertisement on Friday pledging to keep rooting for their idols. The eight-page ad, which included messages such as "We love ...
It's not easy making indie movies in Japan. The big studios only want commercial projects with proven fan appeal, usually based on hit manga, novels or TV dramas. Given the need, government funding schemes are paltry, with much of the money going to films ...
From tech products to movies, the recent advent of crowdfunding has allowed companies and creators to make their dreams a reality. But 26-year-old Tomoko Takebe has a more personal goal in mind — to find herself a husband. "I'm totally serious," Takebe, who has raised over ...
A Japanese organization that helps cultivate professional baseball talent from West Africa has launched an online crowdfunding campaign to bring a group of players from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire to Japan for a six-week course of training and exhibition games this summer. The ...
Aspiring female farmers have traditionally had only two routes into the business in Japan — being born into a farming family or marrying a farmer. The country's male-dominated society has ingrained barriers that make it difficult for women to lease farmland or obtain a loan ...
Yahoo Japan Corp. and major advertising agency Dentsu Inc. will launch a new fundraising service in November, aimed at helping projects raise cash through the sale of used items. Hotel Okura Tokyo will be the first to get on board, auctioning off hundreds of pieces ...
An increasing number of citizens' groups in Japan trying to document firsthand accounts of the tragedies of World War II, which ended 70 years ago this year, are turning to crowdfunding, a popular way of raising funds via the Internet, to pay for cash-strapped ...
