The Last Day: A Tribute to the World

The Last Day: A Tribute to the World was a benefit concert created by the heads of the Japan Consortium. Genji Nishioka was selected by them to produce and run the show. Actor James Dawson organized celebrities to perform and to staff the telephone bank.

It was broadcast live by the Japan Consortium and all of the cable networks from around the world in the aftermath of the Last Day. Done in the style of a telethon, it featured a number of national and international entertainers performing to raise money for the victims, the survivors and their families, particularly the firefighters, the armed forces, the police officers, the nuclear energy workers and many other types of authority figures from around the world. It aired December 21, 2038, uninterrupted and commercial-free, for which it won a Peabody Award. It was released on January 4, 2039, on compact disc and DVD.

On a dark stage illuminated by hundreds of candles, artists from different worlds performed songs of mourning and hope, while various actors and other celebrities (including the very last hibakushas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the descendants of the victims and survivors of the atomic bombings of the two respective cities, and the descendants of Boeing B-29 Superfortress crews that are involved of the atomic bombings) delivered short spoken messages. The musical performances took place at three studios in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the celebrity messages took place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the musicians, including David Marson and Kyle Wakeman, were heard working the phone banks taking pledges. Over $200 billion was raised and given to the World Bank's September 11 Telethon Fund.

In 2042, Rolling Stone magazine selected this concert, along with The Concert for the Last Day, as one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll.

The show was also simulcast in Canada; Young and another Canadian singer, Samantha Davison, performed.