Crowds gather in Yoyogi Park "for the future"

July 17, 2012

Giant antinuclear rally in Tokyo draws protesters from all walks of life

Antinuclear protesters fill Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on July 16. (Mainichi)

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120717p2a00m0na008000c.html

Tens of thousands of antinuclear protesters -- young and old, families and individuals -- packed Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on July 16 before taking to the streets of the capital with their demands for an end to nuclear power in Japan.

Despite the blazing sun and temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius, organizers estimated some 170,000 people had turned out, making the antinuclear rally the largest since the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in March last year. There have been sizeable antinuclear rallies in front of the prime minister's office on Friday evenings since spring this year, but the Yoyogi event outdid them both in size and diversity, with young people and families joining in large numbers.

By 11 a.m. -- two hours before the official start time -- the park was already overflowing, with protesters clogging the surrounding streets. Among them were the Iidas, a family of four from Hachioji in western Tokyo who struggled through the crowd to get to the park. The rally was the first for both parents and their two teenaged daughters.

"We thought that now is the turning point (in the struggle) to rid Japan of nuclear power," the parents commented. "We wanted to be here, at this moment, as a family."

Noon found Naoki Okada and six coworkers from Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in the plaza in front of the main gathering point, holding a red, handmade banner with the words, "No Nukes," and "If we're going to be rid of them, now's the time." Okada, 38, has joined the weekly Friday antinuclear protests in front of the prime minister's office since they began.

"It took just months for Japan to get to zero operational reactors, so why do we need to restart any?" Okada said. "I wanted to strike now, while everyone's determination not to let this pass is united."

Another protester, a 33-year-old from Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, who came with her two children, also emphasized the impact of coming together as a united force.

"I don't usually have the chance to ask my close friends what they think of nuclear power," she said. "But by coming here I really understood how many people think the same way I do," she added, looking around at the vast crowd.

A 61-year-old man from Kawasaki, meanwhile, told the Mainichi Shimbun that though he'd always thought nuclear power was "frightening," he'd never spoken up about it. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster began, however, he began to regret his silence.

"I can really believe in this, in the power of public feeling to determine what's right," he said as the official rally kicked off just before 1 p.m. "Seeing this sea of people, I really think that Japan can change."

After speeches from famed musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Kenzaburo Oe, at about 1:30 p.m. the protesters moved out onto the streets, chanting "We have enough electricity," and "Give back Fukushima."

One 62-year-old civil servant from Tokyo's Mitaka city was among them, one of many there attending an antinuclear rally for the first time.

His idea of what a demonstration is was formed decades before, by the extreme and sometimes violent student protests of the 1960s and '70s. The antinuclear rally, however, "has very few group banners. Demonstrations have changed a lot," he said with deep emotion.

"It feels like the world no longer reflects the thinking of its young people," he observed. "We have to protest to produce change."

Also on the streets was a 32-year-old housewife from Wako, Saitama Prefecture, with her 1-year-old daughter in her arms and 4-year-old son in tow.

"For our children! For the future!" she chanted as she walked.

"A few years ago, I couldn't even imagine that I'd be marching in a protest like this," she said. However, the Fukushima No. 1 plant reactor meltdowns, she felt, had snatched away the safety of her family's food and water, and even places for her children to play. She found out about the July 16 protest via Twitter, and decided she had to take part.

"For anything to change, first of all I have to do something," she said.

One of the protest routes ended at Ebisu Park in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, where a young couple and their baby sat down on a bench to chat after the some 3-kilometer march. They looked happy and satisfied with their summer day spent wrestling with the issue of nuclear power.