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Yoko Kanno's March 11 Quake Anniversary Music VIdeo Previewed

Victor Entertainment began streaming a digest version of the music video for "Hana wa Saku" (Flowers Bloom), the song that Yoko Kanno composed to mark the one-year anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster. The song became the theme for NHK's Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Project, which supports the reconstruction efforts in the areas hardest hit.

Acclaimed film director Shunji Iwai (Love Letter, All About Lily Chou-Chou, Hana & Alice) not only wrote the song's lyrics, but he also directed the music video. The CD for the song will go on sale on May 23, and a limited edition will include the full music video on DVD. Part of the proceeds will go to the quake-affected areas.

34 singers, celebrities, and sports figures who hail from Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima Prefectures — the prefectures hardest hit by the disasters — contributed to the vocals:

Iwate Prefecture: Chikaco Sawada, Masao Sen, Sayaka Nakaya (AKB48), Kenji Niinuma, Hiroaki Murakami, Erika Yamakawa

Miyagi Prefecture: Shizuka Arakawa, Hiroshi Ikushima, ikemen's, Karen Iwata (AKB48), Kōhei Ōtomo, Eiko Kano, Caoli Cano, Ikumi Kumagai, Muneyuki Sato, Sandwichman, Mayo Suzukaze, Kyōka Suzuki, Masatoshi Nakamura, Katsuya Nomura, Miyuki Hatakeyama, Maggy Shinji, Kumiko Mori, Keaki Mori, Mimori Yusa, Yoshinori

Fukushima Prefecture: Kumiko Akiyoshi, Tomio Umezawa, Cha Kato, Yuki Kadokura, B-saku Sato, Toshiyuki Nishida, Naoyuki Harada, Takeshi Honda

Kanno, as well as Iwai, are from Miyagi Prefecture, and their hometowns were affected by the disaster.