Arashi to hold school-themed charity events at Tokyo Dome

5-membered idol unit Arashi will be holding charity events in support of the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake at the Tokyo Dome, from June 24 to 26. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to disaster relief.

Arashi was originally scheduled to perform at the Tokyo Dome as part of their nationwide tour, but due to the electricity shortage in Japan, they’ve changed the five Tokyo Dome concerts into charity events instead. The other tour stops were unaffected.

The theme of the events will be “Arashi’s school“. The members will take on the role of teachers to create events that are both fun and educational for their “students”.

Member Matsumoto Jun commented, “(We) want to make it an exciting school where people can have fun and learn what’s important in thinking about Japan’s future.”

Ninomiya Kazunari stated, “(We) want to make it fun in the framework of ‘education’“.

Each of the members will take turns being the “teacher” for the five times the charity event is being held, to a total audience of 225,000 “students”. The members are currently still figuring out the content of the events, but Matsumoto revealed, “We want to do something that you can only do at the Tokyo Dome, and an audience participation model where we can do experiments with the audience together.”

Shortly after the charity events, on July 6th, Arashi will be releasing their 10th original album “Beautiful World“. A nationwide tour named after the album will start from July 24th in Osaka and continue on until January 15th of next year.

Regarding the tour, Ninomiya remarked, “Right after the earthquake, there was a mood of self-discipline, but as someone who is a part of it, I’m happy that the entertainment world is coming back. (I) want (people) to just enjoy the live.”

Source: Sanspo

“Nippon no Arashi” to be sold publicly this summer!

Last fall, Arashi volunteered to be navigators in a book called “Nippon no Arashi“, which is a book that was exclusive to 40,000 elementary, junior high, and senior high schools in Japan.

Despite high demand, the book hasn’t been on sale to the public…until now.

It’s been decided that a pocket-sized version of this book will be released to the public on June 30th. The group will take you different parts of Japan, and while they are there navigating you through Japan, the book is written by professionals who watched the group’s activities.

The book will costs ¥1,050 ($12.87 USD) and all of the money made from sales will be given to charity to help those effected by the Tohoku disaster.

Source: Sanspo

Sakurai Sho becomes “pino” image character for 2nd consecutive year

Arashi’s Sakurai Sho has been chosen as the image character for Morinaga’s ice cream dessert, “pino“. This marks the second consecutive year where he will be representing “pino”, which welcomes its 35th anniversary this year.

In the CM broadcast last year, Sakurai portrayed a pâtissier in-training learning how to make “pino” from an older pâtissier. The new CM for this year will show him as an accomplished pâtissier struggling to create a “pino” with the perfect balance between chocolate and ice cream.

Both the 15-second and 30-second versions of the CM will start airing on May 20th. The “making of” video will also be available on the “pino” website on the 20th.

Source: MSN Japan