Nike invites athletes to run Japan’s perimeter for relief effort

The campaign, developed by Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo, is part of Nike’s ‘All for Japan’ charitable initiative. The central concept is a 32,000 kilometre run around the perimeter of the country. The challenge will take place from 0.00am on 11 March, with participants able to run from any location with the aid of the Nike+ distance measurement system or iPhone.

Nike has pledged to donate 500 yen (around US$6) for every kilometre recorded on Nike+ to reconstruction efforts through Architecture for Humanity, a US-based non-profit organisation.

The initiative is supported by outdoor, print and film components as well as a central website where participants are invited to register. Additional videos featuring various atheletes are scheduled to be uploaded to the site over the campaign's duration.

Separately, McCann Healthcare Worldwide has joined a number of organisations including Ishinomaki Hibi Newspaper and Radio Ishinomaki to support a charity running event, Oraho+Run311, also in remembrance of the disaster. 'Oraho' means 'our' in the Tohoku dialect.

The event is an extension of Oraho no Radio Taiso, an initiative developed by McCann Healthcare last year as a Tohoku-dialect version of Japan's daily radio exercises, known as 'taiso'. The idea was to help maintain the health of those who had suffered as a result of the earthquake, as well as helping restore community spirit.

The run will take place on 11 March in Isinomaki, a city severely damaged by the earthquake. Similar to Nike's initiative, 'Oraho' aims to link to runners elsewhere in Japan and the world via an application, PACE4.