Japanese rock star Yoshiki has donated 10 million Japanese Yen (about US$87,000) to the Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Emergency Assistance Fund.
Yoshiki tweeted news of the donation yesterday, saying, "I just donated 10,000,000 yen for humanitarian fund of Ukraine. I'd like to support through music as well". He also encouraged his fans to do the same, and in response Yoshiki's followers raised nearly nearly $500,000 USD for the fund in under 24 hours.
The fund was launched by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Group Inc., creators of the Viber messaging platform, and will be used for humanitarian assistance such as ensuring the safe supply of drinking water, providing public health services, and protecting children.
Other musicians to have expressed their dismay at Russia's invasion of Ukraine include Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, who asked asked Russian soldiers to "stop killing their brothers," while a number of international metal and rock bands have spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s war.
The Yoshiki documentary We Are X, which premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2016, launched on Amazon Prime in the US last week.
We Are X tells the story of Yoshiki's long-running band X Japan, was filmed by the same team responsible for the Oscar-winning documentary Searching For Sugar Man, and features contributions from Gene Simmons, Guns N' Roses guitarist Richard Fortus, and the late comic book legend Stan Lee.
"If I were a scriptwriter, I would not write something like that,” Yoshiki told Metal Hammer in 2016. “That’s how shocking the movie is.”
In 1994 Yoshiki collaborated with Queen drummer Roger Taylor on Foreign Sand, an anti-war anthem from the latter's album Happiness?.
