X Japan’s Yoshiki and Yahoo team up to auction crystal piano for quake relief
Rock band X Japan founder Yoshiki, who announced in March his plan to auction off his favorite crystal piano to raise money for Japan’s earthquake and tsunami victims, has revealed that he is working with Internet portal Yahoo to make the auction available worldwide.
Yoshiki is to auction his iconic custom-made Kawai grand piano on April 17 and Yahoo is helping the singer promote the charity event in 7 languages. Bids will be accepted in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian and Russian.
“As an artist who lives abroad, it was the natural next step for me to invite bids not just from Japan, but from overseas as well,” Yoshiki told reporters. “Yahoo has been working hard to offer what support it can, which includes preparing auction pages in seven languages.”
The auction has also been granted its own banner on the Yahoo Tohoku Earthquake Charity Auction Site and provisions have been made to allow fans to bid from Facebook and Twitter. The Internet giant said that anyone of any nationality who can read the web pages is eligible to bid.
Auction proxy service J-grab, which supports English language buyers in the Japanese market, has offered to help international buyers bid on the piano by waiving handling fees and commission.
Yoshiki, who plays drums and piano and writes most of the music for X Japan, is based in Los Angeles, but was visiting Japan to attend a fashion show and write music at the time of the quake. Originally from Chiba, Yoshiki said he watched events unfold and when he saw the scale of the destruction, he decided to do what he could to help the recovery operations. “I decided the best I could do was to try and contribute something through music,” he said.
The auction will be held from April 17 to 24. Bidding will start at 1 yen. The amount international bidders pay will be calculated according to the exchange rate on the day they place their bids.
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