Japanese students in Birmingham raise thousands Published duration 17 March 2011

image caption Staff and students collecting outside Birmingham University's library

Japanese students at the University of Birmingham have spearheaded a campaign which has seen £16,000 raised in just a few days.

The students have partly collected the money by standing outside their library with buckets.

The project has been organised by a lecturer and student Tetsuya Kimura whose family lives 60 miles from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

All money raised is going to the Japanese Red Cross.

'Killing me'

Mr Kimura said it was hard to stay in Birmingham and do nothing.

"But if I go back to Japan I could not do anything," he said.

Lecturer Hiroshi Saito's wife is in Japan and she has asked him to remain where he is for his own benefit.

"It is killing me," he said.

More than 9,500 people are missing and tens of thousands of people are living in temporary shelters after a quake and then tsunami hit the country last Friday.