45,000 fans turn up to Johnny’s charity baseball match

A full house crowd of 45,000 fans and 200 Johnny’s talents invaded Tokyo Dome on May 29 for a charity baseball match, reports Sankei Sports, Daily Sports Online, and Chunichi Sports.

The match was the second Marching J event organised by Johnny’s & Associates to raise money for people affected by the Tohoku disaster.

KAT-TUN’s Kazuya Kamenashi was declared the man of the match as his team “J-White” claimed victory.  The team managed to slide one point ahead of their rivals at the end, winning the game 10-9.

“My adrenaline was pumping so much.  I hurt my elbow, so I actually took six painkiller pills today,” Kamenashi said.

As he was awarded the man-of-the-match trophy, Kamenashi asked all of the Johnny’s fans to keep supporting relief efforts.

“We’ve become a huge power force thanks to so many of you who have supported us through ‘Marching J’.  I hope we can keep going and give something even bigger back to the community,” he said.

Other Johnny’s talents also took the opportunity to thank fans and send messages out to the those affected by the 3/11 disaster.

“I hope things will recover as soon as possible,” Koichi Domoto said.

“I will never forget the smile on your faces,” Masahiro Nakai said.

SMAP’s Shingo Katori made a guest appearance at yesterday’s match, and later on Nakai, the only SMAP member taking part in the event, explained why he was alone.

“Kimura’s working on a drama, Katori’s also working on a drama.  Inagaki is at a wine party.  Kusanagi had an appointment with his dentist…,” he said.

KAT-TUN’s 2011 concerts postponed or cancelled

This year’s KAT-TUN summer concert tour has been cancelled, it was revealed on May 29, reports Daily Sports Online and Chunichi Sports.

 

The tour was meant to start in July, but the 3/11 Tohoku earthquake lead to a number of changes which have made a summer start impossible.  It has been reported the venue for the group’s planned outdoor concert at Yokohama’s Higashi-ougishima Higashi park is also an emergency evacuation area.  To make everyone’s safety a priority, the concert has been cancelled.

 

It was also revealed the group’s 5-Dome concert tour would be postponed until 2012.  This is because of the Tohoku earthquake delayed the start of the professional baseball season, making baseball matches clash with concerts which were planned to be performed at the same venues.

 

The group did not say they were giving up though.

“We think about performing concerts all the time,” Kazuya Kamenashi said.

 

In the mean time, it has been reported plans are being drawn up for a possible fan meeting event around autumn to make up for the time loss.