Japanese restaurants Feng Sushi, YO! Sushi and Tsunami are amongst those donating to the Red Cross, and encouraging customers to do likewise.
On Friday Feng Sushi started donating £1 for each of its most popular dishes sold, and will this week start putting Red Cross donation boxes on its counters. The efforts, which will run for at least one month, are being backed up by e-mail and twitter communications to the brand’s customers.
Feng Sushi managing director Silla Bjerrum said the firm is also encouraging its suppliers to become involved, and is appealing to suppliers of Japanese products but based outside Japan.
A fundraising event at the Southbank Feng Sushi restaurant is also being considered, as well as a potential week of volunteering in Japan.
The unfortunately named Tsunami Japanese restaurant also started donations last week, adding a voluntary £1 to every customer’s bill since Wednesday 16 March.
So far, the restaurant says all customers have agreed to the donations, with many people contributing a lot more via contribution boxes.
YO! Sushi will be donating all profits from sales of their most popular dish, the YO! Roll, to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal, from 22 - 29 March 2011.
YO! Sushi also have a link to the Red Cross online donation page on their website and have placed donation boxes in all their restaurants.
Tsunami damage
The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan 11 days ago has so far resulted in over 9,000 deaths. Almost 13,000 people are still missing.
A report from the Work Bank has said the country may need up to five years to rebuild from the quake and tsunami, which are thought to have caused up to $235bn (£145bn) of damage.