Next 100 YearsJ-friends

J-friends

J-FRIENDS was a special unit made up of Johnny’s Entertainment groups Tokio, V6, and KinKi Kids. It was formed to raise funds for the education of children involved in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. Until their disbandment in 2003 they were able to release 6 singles and held some charity concerts and events. In the end, they were able to donate 874.278.322 Yen.

In 1995, there was a big earthquake in Hanshin and Awaji in Japan. About 6,500 people died and 513,000 houses broke. To help such people, in 1998, KinKi Kids, along with fellow Johnny’s groups V6 and Tokio, came together to form a special charity-oriented group called J-FRIENDS, they sang songs to raise the money for Hanshin and Awaji earthquake victims especially for children, in which all the songs are created and is produced by many famous international musicians such as Michael Jackson, Maurice White, Diane Warren, Elton John, Jon Bon Jovi, and Koshi Inaba. J-Friends’s first single “Ashita ga Kikoeru/Children’s Holiday (“ (明日が聴こえる/Children’s Holiday, "Can You Hear Tomorrow/Children’s Holiday”)”, released on January 21, 1998, went on to sell over a million copies and ranked 12th on the annual Oricon charts by the end of the year.