This is a personal request from editor Sara Brown:

This is a personal request from editor Sara Brown:

I saw a facebook post yesterday that a friend had shared and it showed foreigners living in (i think) Fukuoka who gathered goods age delivered them to an evacuation site here in Kumamoto. I forgot which friend posted it and i cant find it. Im asking for anyone who has information about non-Japanese delivering goods or making donations for Kumamoto. The REASON I’m asking is because I have seen at least 5 reshares of tweets and facebook posts in the past two days (each with numerous likes, retweets, and reshares) about foreigners in the disaster-struck areas being written up as suspicious and asking people to look their doors and be cautious of thieves. I can’t say for sure there aren’t foreigners doing that kind of thing and I know that there are also similar posts where the nationality isn’t specified (meaning by default they will be considered japanese), but I was just shown a reshare of a facebook post by a woman in Shiranui who said that she saw what she estimated to be 8 foreigners (though she only saw the face of one) in 2 vans with fukuoka rental plates and that when one of the men smiled at her, she glared at him. Her reasoning was that PERHAPS he was volunteering, but why would foreigners come all the way to kumamoto and why were they stopped in Shiranui. She said that she had heard of suspicious foreigners in Mashiki and aso and such and that everyone should remember to lock their doors and keep vigilant.

It makes me want to cry.

So I’m asking that anyone who has information about foreigners helping out - especially if there are pictures attached - to PLEASE contact me. I want to make a post in Japanese asking people to share THAT information instead of unfounded and potentially harmful claims.