The seventh annual “Inochi” (Life) benefit Christmas concert will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. (doors open at 1 p.m.) at Centenary United Methodist Church, 300 S. Central Ave. (at Third) in Little Tokyo.
The concert will feature multidirectional flute soloist Pedro Eustache; Koji Nakamura, director of Makoto Taiko at Shumei America; flautist Nori Tani; John H. Johnson; and NCM2 (New Christian Music Ministry) Choir, a Japanese choir that features singers from various Protestant churches in the Los Angeles area. (Program subject to change.)
Co-presented by NCM2 and Inochi no Denwa Tomo no Kai (命の電話友の会). All proceeds will go toward operation of the Little Tokyo Service Center’s Nikkei Helpline, the first crisis hotline for the Japanese American community. Over 40,000 people have called the Nikkei Helpline since its inception in 1984, getting help with everything from immigration, education, and traffic accidents to illness, drug abuse, relationship crises and other emergencies.
NHL serves both English and Japanese-speaking community members, although 95% of the calls are now from monolingual Japanese speakers born and raised in Japan.