As you will undoubtedly have seen from recent news coverage, Japan has experienced a disaster of unimaginable enormity.
With a death toll expected to exceed 10,000, many missing and injured and five million homes without electricity and a million without water, the scale of devastation is huge.
We don't usually comment on world news events here on Room Thirteen, but we just wanted to bring to your attention two ways you can help the disaster relief effort in Japan.
You can donate to straight to the Japanese Red Cross here
or
HearJapan will be donating 50% of all its sales for the next week to the Japanese relief effort.
The website, which offers Japanese music of all genres for download, is able to get donations made from downloads working immediately to help those affected by last week's events.
HearJapan have said of the donation: HearJapan will not be making any profit from this. In fact HearJapan will be losing money, in effect adding to the donation itself. HearJapan is a small company, but we are committed to doing everything we can to help. We feel this is a great way to get others involved, make an instantly tangible difference and also give some great Japanese music in return.
The website may be down for a few hours a day due to rolling blackouts in the country, but please do persist if you want to both contribute and listen to some of the most creative and interesting music around.
www.hearjapan.com
To see why Japan needs your help, please watch the video below which shows in the first-person the devastating effects of the tsunami: