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.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS