Saitama Super Arena overflows with volunteers

"A high school student said she was disappointed to learn that it takes more than a week to gain police permission to collect donations in front of train stations"

This is so typical of how Japan works.

Saitama Super Arena will function as a shelter only until the end of March.

What's going to happen to all of the 2,300 evacuees? Will they be thrown out? Surely alternatives have been sourced?

A high school student said she was disappointed to learn that it takes more than a week to gain police permission to collect donations in front of train stations

I have a really big problem with that statement. Typical keystone answer.

Saitama arena is the ideal evac shelter..it should be made permanant until repatriation of the refugees to their own districts...keeping them moving from one shelter to another is demoralising to say the least. These people need to feel they belong somewhere to give them the confidence to help them re build their lives.

Follow up to warallthetime...I asked the Principal in my school if I could make a collection amongst our teachers to send to the people in need, he told me we are not allowed! I was stumped!

Oh the whining!

It should take at least a week for police to check out random individuals wanting to hold donation boxes in public places! Would you be happier if they let anyone do that?

Last night the Yomiuri Giants were taking collections. Two busloads of policemen needed to be there for crowd control.

While it's very nice that this kid thought of standing around holding a box, there are enough places and ways to donate cash without more people and boxes. I can empathize with the student's wanting to do SOMETHING and having trouble thinking of something that actually needs doing.

Kokusai Forum, Tokyo Budokan (Adachi-ku), and (I think) Big Site are also hosting evacuees for a short period. I saw that some of the people at the Saitama arena brought pets that aren't being allowed in. I wonder if the evacuees to Tokyo also need some pet-sitting volunteers.

It should take at least a week for police to check out random individuals wanting to hold donation boxes in public places! Would you be happier if they let anyone do that?

...and that solves what? If I wanted to collect donations and the police did a background check on me, what would stop me from just keeping the cash or donations? How would they know how much I collected? How would they know if I sent the donations to the right people?

One or two days, maybe,,,,,but one week to wait for an answer? There's people in need up there NOW, not next week.

And there are also many crooks lining up to get their share of the aid-money.

I never give to anyone that don't have an officially registered donation number.

There are plenty of established channels to donate money through if you want to collect donations that can go through now. Random people standing outside stations aren't likely to have the connections to get the aid donated efficiently, so to me it seems reasonable to discourage it if they give information on alternative ways to help.

I was in Kichijoji a few days ago, they had the Red Cross and the Lions Club collecting donations. Was more like a Gauntlet run between those 2 groups to get to the shops from the station.

The reality, however, is that despite the growing lines of people wanting to help in one way or another, the Saitama Super Arena will function as a shelter only until the end of March.

I think it's more important to keep the arena functioning as a shelter instead of hosting events, which is why they have a deadline.

It is very good the intention of many people to collect donations but unfortunately many people do not have such intentions and leave them to themselves. That's why permission is required and it takes a few days.

The most efficient and secure way to donate money right now is ONLINE to established organizations (Red Cross, UNICEF, etc...). Take your credit card now and go to their websites. These big organizations have the logistics to handle this kind of situation, which many small organizations don't.

Seeing a response like this, it fills you with hope for rebuilding.

Here's a story of shame: a teacher at my school tried to scuttle my announcement that I was collecting supplies for a relief effort put on by ALTs because he thought that Japanese should take care of their own people and didn't need any help from foreigners.. WHAT?

Jason, are you sure that something didn't get lost in translation? (or transmission?)

Gurukun, there have been massive amounts of donations made. The problem is however its not getting to them due to all the red tape. There will just as many people there next week who will still need help though so there will come the time when peoples volunteer efforts will be required. I dont blame people for wanting to do things right now though. I am one of them. But the reality is, as you correctly pointed out. Anyone can collect money then just pocket it. (And this IS happening unfortunately). There are enough established channels to make donations. If someone really wants to help, help out an established donation channel (red cross etc), sign up for volunteer efforts and just be ready for when your needed. Volunteers will be needed for a long time to come.

i heard that some christian groups such as Anglicans and Jehovah's already got their supplies through,,,,maybe some more determined effort by the little people instead of folding of hands of big people may be more efficient