Thousands of demonstrators, some wearing gas masks, marched on Japan’s parliament yesterday, where they formed a human chain to protest the use of nuclear power after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant crisis.
They marched through Tokyo chanting: “We don’t need nuclear power” and “stop operating nuclear plants,” in the latest demonstration since a recent decision to resume the use of nuclear power in Japan following a total shutdown.
The protesters were also wearing white protective suits similar to those used by decontamination workers at the crippled Fukushima plant, and drummed on yellow barrels emblazoned with atomic waste warnings.
Journalists estimated there were at least 10,000 demonstrators in the early stages of the march. They formed a human chain around the parliament in the evening.
“After the Fukushima disaster, I thought that the government and vested interests were telling us lies about nuclear power being safe,” said Miho Igarashi, 46, an architect from Ibaraki Prefecture, south of Fukushima.
“We have to raise our voices against” the danger of atomic power, she said.
The rally is the latest in a string of protests in Japan, which has seen a rising tide of anti-nuclear sentiment since Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda last month ordered the restart of two reactors.
Noda defended the move, citing looming power shortages after Japan switched off its 50 nuclear reactors, which provided the resource-poor country with a third of its energy, in the wake of the disaster.
Weekly demonstrations outside the prime minister’s residence have drawn tens of thousands of people and a rally in west Tokyo earlier this month saw a crowd that organizers claimed was about 170,000-strong.
Yesterday’s protest took place in high temperatures under a blazing sun and the crowd included families with small children.
“I decided to join the protest because nuclear reactors are resuming, even though their safety is not guaranteed,” said Sayaka Suzuki, 28, who was with her three-year-old daughter.
The latest rally comes less than a week after a damning government-backed report on last year’s crisis said Japanese officials and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, ignored the risk of an atomic accident because they believed in the “myth of nuclear safety.”
A separate parliamentary report said the worst nuclear accident in a generation was a man-made disaster, marked by a lack of oversight and collusion between TEPCO, the government and regulators.
The giant utility largely cleared itself of blame, saying the size of last year’s earthquake and tsunami was beyond all expectations and could not have reasonably been foreseen.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year crippled cooling equipment at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, triggering meltdowns that spewed radioactivity and forced tens of thousands of residents to flee.
The rising anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan has also led to the launch of Greens Japan, a political organization aiming to field candidates with an environmental agenda in parliamentary elections.
“A party that strongly pursues environmental policies is needed,” Akira Miyabe, the group’s 59-year-old deputy head, was quoted by Kyodo News as saying at an inaugural meeting on Saturday.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
RSS