Jose Carreras called for donations to bone marrow banks last week in Tokyo during a charity concert tour.

The Spanish opera star, one of the Three Tenors, overcame leukemia 13 years ago after receiving a bone marrow transplant. Since then, he has been working for the cause in support of other leukemia sufferers.

The 54-year-old singer held three charity concerts in Osaka and Tokyo from which he will donate at least 1.5 million yen each to the Japan Marrow Donor Program, which organized the concert, and to the Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation, which he founded in 1988 in Barcelona, his hometown.

There are still very few registered bone marrow donors in Japan, only about 142,000 as of last week.

"The more marrow donors there are, the more patients can be saved. I hope that as many people as possible will agree to register as bone marrow donors," he said.

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