16,000 protestors in Tokyo

September 24, 2014

16,000 people gather at Tokyo park to protest against restart of nuclear plants

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140924p2a00m0na021000c.html

About 16,000 people took part in an anti-nuclear rally at Kameido Central Park in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Sept. 23, demanding that plans to reactivate the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, be scrapped, its organizer said.

The rally, "Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants," had originally been scheduled to take place at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, but the venue for the event was hastily rearranged due to an outbreak of dengue fever there.

On Sept. 10, the Nuclear Regulation Authority approved the final version of its screening report for the Sendai nuclear power station -- a precondition for reactivating two nuclear reactors at the plant. Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, one of the organizers of the rally, said to the crowd, "We must raise the voice of national resistance." Yoshitaka Mukohara, who heads "Han-Genpatsu Kagoshima Net" (Anti-Nuclear Kagoshima Network), said, "Let's dissuade them from reactivating the nuclear plant without giving in an inch."

After the rally, participants took to the streets, holding up placards that read: "We don't need nuclear power!" Fuyuko Takei, a 31-year-old company employee from Tokyo's Nerima Ward, took part in the rally with her 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter. "The Fukushima accident is not someone else's problem. There's no way that (the Sendai nuclear plant) can be reactivated," she said.

September 24, 2014(Mainichi Japan)