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Four arrested as thousands take part in anti-G8 rally in Japan next week

Several thousand people rallied yesterday on the streets of central Sapporo, Japan, to protest against a G8 summit that will start tomorrow at a luxury hotel a two-hour drive away.

Four Japanese men were arrested, said a police official on Hokkaido, of which Sapporo is the capital. Two were arrested for violating the public safety ordinances and two others for interfering with police activities.

A Reuters cameraman was taken away by police, but it was not immediately clear if he was among the four arrested.

“The G8 countries have failed in their responsibilities,” resulting in discrimination, war and environmental destruction, said one of the organizers, Akiyoshi Ishida.

“The G8 countries are the greatest weapons exporters in the world and when they meet they don’t work for the creation of peace,” a 59-year-old housewife and peace activist said at the rally.

“When the leaders of the richest states meet does that serve to help the poor? History and common sense says no,” an activist from the US said.

The one-and-a-half hour march by Japanese and foreign activists, citizen groups and nongovernmental organizations took place under heavy security ahead of the three-day summit of the rich nations at the hot spring and lake resort of Toyako, 70km away.

The protesters banged drums and carried colorful banners proclaiming “Shut Down the G8” and yelled: “We are against a summit of rich nations.”

Some marched dressed in traditional Japanese summer kimonos and costumes of the local ethnic minority, the Ainu.

A police source estimated the crowd at 2,000 to 3,000.

“They have been pushing upon us their policies. I wish they would hear and represent the voices of the people who actually live here and not be so selfish,” said Mizuho Tsuboi, a 64-year-old farmer from Hokkaido.

Summits of the G8, which bring together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US each year, have become a magnet for protesters angry about everything from what world leaders are doing about climate change to the effects of globalization.
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