Japanese Bitcoin Exchange Coincheck has started accepting bitcoin donation to support Kumamoto Japan earthquake victims.

Japan was recently hit by twin earthquakes, one day apart, that has killed at least 41 people. On Thursday night, Kyushu was hit by a magnitude-6.5 quake and on Saturday, Kumamoto region on the southwestern island of Kyushu was shaken by magnitude-7.3 quake.

Kagayaki Kawabata, Coincheck Business Development Lead, told Brave New Coin that donations will be converted to Japanese yen and given to Peace Winds Japan (PWJ), an organization dedicated to providing emergency humanitarian assistance, disaster relief activities, and reconstruction assistance.

“PWJ was the first reliable organization that started a donation drive for Kumamoto earthquake victims. We wanted to start the donation drive as quickly as possible, so we choose PWJ”, Kawabata said.

He said that the tenure of the campaign will depend on the amount of donations received in the coming months.

Brave New Coin reported that PWJ started collecting emergency donations for Kumamoto earthquake victims support activities through its website on Friday. However, it accepts donations only through credit card, postal transfer, and PayPal. In addition, third party sites have also joined the effort to raise money for the victims through PWJ, including one on Yahoo Japan and one on JapanGiving.

"We are the only organization in Japan that host a bitcoin donation drive platform," Kawabata said.

Coincheck started bitcoin donation service to support organizations and projects those in needs. With this service, it seeks to address issues such as lack of donation cultures in Japan and expensive international money transfer fee, which are major hurdles for raising funds at the time of need.

“Compared to traditional international bank transfer where you have to pay an intermediary fee to a bank, bitcoin donation allows users to transfer donations directly. (Just a few yen of fee for any amount of transfer)” – Coincheck

For making donations, donors can use QR codes displayed on Coincheck's website, available in both Japanese and English. Donations are done anonymously without any personal information such as name or email address. Coincheck does not issue a receipt for tax exemption purpose.

“By using bitcoin you can send donations from a smartphone with ease”, Coincheck says on its website. “Compared to credit card payment, bitcoin payment allows you to send donations dramatically faster.”

At the time of writing, the fund has received over 31 BTC in donations from more than 400 people.