Help Japan: Donate and consider investing in the recovery

Below, I have provided a consolidated list for supporting earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan. One crazy idea (and I am no finance guy or investment guru) and the one that I am following is both making donations and buying Nikkei 225 index funds. Buying Nikkei 225 funds will support  Japanese companies by counteracting panic selling in the market.  Japan will recover, so you will be doing something good for this country's economy and making a good long term investment (Again, I am no investment guru, so this is just my own opinion). For a thoughtful article on Japanese recovery (Thanks to Vince Ricci for bringing it to my attention), see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/the-silver-lining-of-japa_b_835417.html.

Here are some ways to help (mostly taken from the Japan Times list:

The Japanese Red Cross:
English site: http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/relief/l4/Vcms4_00002070.html
Japanese site: https://gienkin.jrc.or.jp/

• American Red Cross
• British Red Cross
• Save the Children
• MercyCorps
• World Vision Canada
• Ekokoro.jp (Japanese)
• The Japan Committee for Unicef (Japanese)
• GlobalGiving
• Oxfam Japan
• Salvation Army
• Second Harvest
• Send money or supplies via JHelp (Scroll down page for mailing address.)
• Blood donation. Call Japan Red Cross Society at 03-3437-7081 and checkguidelines for blood donor eligibility

Japanese students in the UK have organized an appeal effort there for the Japanese Red Cross: http://japanearthquakerelieffund.jimdo.com/

If you are in the US, you can find a list of charities here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/15/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-relief_n_834484.html

-Adam