New protestors join in

Antinuke demonstrators form human chain around Diet building

Ordinary citizens by the hundreds join activists in human chain

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120729x1.html

By SETSUKO KAMIYA and MIZUHO AOKI

Staff writers

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people including ordinary citizens and antinuclear activists gathered in Tokyo Sunday afternoon to form a human chain around the Diet building, calling for the abolition of nuclear power plants and putting more pressure on the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

In the past, protest rallies around the Diet were usually organized by political parties and labor unions. But like many other rallies organized in the aftermath of the triple meltdowns that erupted in the Fukushima disaster, Sunday's was attended by many nonactivist citizens.

"This is really a very hot summer, but although none of the nuclear power plants of Tokyo Electric Power Co. are operating, we're not short of electricity in Tokyo," said Keiko Ochai, an author who is among the organizers of the rally.

"We have to push for the halting of the Oi nuclear power plant, and need to keep the government from restarting other nuclear power plants," she said, referring to the nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture at which two reactors have been reactivated following safety checkups mandated in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Protesters gathered at around 3:30 p.m. at Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward under a scorching sun with hand-made signs and banners in their hands.

After marching roughly 1.5 km through the Uchisaiwaicho district and close to JR Shinbashi station, the protesters surrounded the Diet building holding candles and penlights to put more pressure on lawmakers to stop the planned reactivation of more nuclear reactors.

The organizer, Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes, an association of antinuclear citizens' groups, initially planned to provide candles to every participant, but with the number of attendees ballooning, they decided to hand them out only to those who were able to stand near the main entrance of the Diet building.

Some of the participants said they were attending an antinuclear rally for the first time.

Maya Yamaguchi, 25, from Tokyo's Meguro Ward, said she was concerned about the issue and wanted to hear what others were saying. She signed an antinuclear petition and wrote about it on her Facebook page, which was picked up by her friend, Yuri Inomata, 27, who invited her to join her at the rally.

Inomata, from Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture, now believes that many people have changed their attitudes toward antinuclear demonstrations.

"I think more people realize that this issue concerns ourselves," she said. "It's important for us to keep raising our voice," she said.

Kotaro Kikuchi, 22, a student from Iwate Prefecture, said he travelled to Tokyo on Sunday morning with his friend, but with a somewhat different aim than participating in the rallies. "I guess most of the people who gathered here want to say 'no' to the restart of nuclear reactors. But I came here to say 'no' to "fuhyo-higai" (the damage caused by groundless rumors) that the Tohoku region has been suffering from" since the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Kikuchi said.

Kikuchi, who was participating in a demonstration for the first time, said the Tohoku region won't recover if rumors continue to circulate based on groundless fears of radiation, which he says is making people shy away from the area.

"I've heard that some boards of education decided not to choose Tohoku as a destination for school trips," Kikuchi said. "When I heard that, I really thought we have to raise our voices. Otherwise, Iwate Prefecture won't be revitalized."

Kikuchi said that the nuclear crisis that led to the rumors and subsequent damage should never be allowed to happen again.

Laurent Mabesoone, 43, a French haiku poet from Nagano Prefecture, said he and his wife, Toyo, 42, and their 4-year-old daughter also arrived in Tokyo on Sunday morning to participate in the rally. Living only 60 km away from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, he expressed his opposition to restarting idled power plants.

"If the same kind of accident happens at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, it'd all be over. It would be (like) an area that has been hit over and over by earthquakes. We should not allow the restart of the power plant," he said.

Mabesoone said he kicked off an antinuclear campaign in Nagano Prefecture on Friday. "Over 100 people gathered. We will continue to hold the demonstration in Nagano every Friday to coincide with Tokyo. . . . From reactions on Twitter and Facebook, I guess the number will grow more," Mabesoone said.

"I believe it's time to raise our voices. Otherwise, there won't be a future for us," his wife said.

If we continue to raise our voices, our wishes will eventually be heard by the government, she added.

Antinuclear rally to encircle Diet with candlelight

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120729p2g00m0dm042000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- People took to the streets in central Tokyo Sunday to protest the resumption of two nuclear reactors at the Oi power plant on the Sea of Japan coast after all of the nation's reactors were shut down following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi complex.

After marching from Hibiya Park, they will encircle the Diet building with candlelight, while several lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties as well as the Australian Green Party will address them in front of the main gate of the Diet building.

The demonstration was organized by the Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes, whose rallies in front of the prime minister's office every Friday have drawn tens of thousands of citizens.

Misao Redwolf, an illustrator and one of the organizers, said at a press conference Friday, "We have gathered larger numbers of people than we expected," reflecting "everyone's anger at the government's decision to restart the nuclear reactors." She added that the weekly rallies will continue until the government shuts down the Oi reactors.

Unlike conventional protests in Japan organized by labor unions and political groups, a large number of independent citizens, including children, have joined the weekly Friday demonstrations, although many of them had never taken to streets before, the group said.

It said it has called for participation mainly through microblogging site Twitter and has contrived ways to draw ordinary citizens by banning participants from carrying banners with names of unions and political groups as well as by creating special areas for families with children.

The first rally on March 29 drew only about 300 people, but the number of protesters has grown since, especially after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decided to reactivate Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear reactors in Fukui Prefecture on June 16, the organizer said.

The number reached around 200,000 on June 29, the group claimed, but the Metropolitan Police Department came out with the drastically lower figure of 17,000.