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Thousands march against nuclear power in Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) — Several thousand people are marching in downtown Tokyo calling on the government to abandon nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The demonstrators chanted “Sayonara nuclear power” while holding banners and placards as they marched Monday, a national holiday in Japan.

Police gave an initial estimate that just over 20,000 people participated, but protest organizers put the figure at 60,000.

Either way, it is one of the biggest demonstrations since the March 11 accident, in which the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant spewed radiation into the air in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

AP, September 19, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110919p2g00m0dm065000c.html

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Thousands protest in Japan against nuclear power

A large demonstration has taken place in Tokyo calling for an end to nuclear energy in Japan, just over six months after the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima power plant.

The protest on Monday was one of the biggest since the disaster: 60,000 strong, said the organisers; 20,000 said the police.

The government says its aim is to lower the country’s dependence on nuclear power. Not good enough, say the protesters.

“We want the government to say clearly when they will stop using nuclear power so that all of us can be relieved and work hard towards using renewable energy,” said protest leader Yasunari Fujimoto.

euronews, september 19, 2011
http://www.euronews.net/2011/09/19/thousands-protest-in-japan-against-nuclear-power/

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Japanese urge “farewell” to nuclear power six months after quake

(Reuters) - Sixty thousand protesters gathered in central Tokyo Monday demanding an end to Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, six months after the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

The protest leaders, including 1994 Nobel-prize winner Kenzaburo Oe and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, called the rally “Goodbye to Nuclear Power Plants.”

“Now is the only moment to really change nuclear policy and this is the best time to act,” said Satoe Sakai, 39, who travelled from the central city of Osaka to join the rally.

“If we don’t stop it now, we probably never will.”

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan told Japan’s Kyodo News that he had learned that around 30 million people in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures might have had to have been evacuated in a worst-case scenario.

“It was a crucial moment when I wasn’t sure whether Japan could continue to function as a state,” Kyodo quoted him as saying at the weekend.

Many of the protesters in Tokyo Monday were from Fukushima.

“We, the people of Fukushima, do not see nuclear radiation of course and we can’t smell it,” said resident Yoshiharu Saito. “But we have no doubt it is spreading.”

(Reporting by Olivier Fabre and Mio Coxon; Writing by Mariko Katsumura and Nick Macfie)

Reuters, September 19, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/19/us-japan-nuclear-idUSTRE78I1HQ20110919

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Thousands march against nuclear power in Tokyo

TOKYO (AP) – Chanting “Sayonara nuclear power” and waving banners, tens of thousands of people marched in central Tokyo on Monday to call on Japan’s government to abandon atomic energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The demonstration underscores how deeply a Japanese public long accustomed to nuclear power has been affected by the March 11 crisis, when a tsunami caused core meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex.

“Radiation is scary,” said Nami Noji, a 43-year-old mother who came to the protest on this national holiday with her four children, ages 8-14. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about the safety of food, and I want the future to be safe for my kids.”

Police estimated the crowd at 20,000 people, while organizers said there were three times that many people.

Mari Joh, a 64-year-old woman who traveled from Hitachi city to collect signatures for a petition to shut down the Tokai Dai-ni nuclear plant not far from her home, acknowledged that shifting the country’s energy sources could take 20 years.

“But if the government doesn’t act decisively now to set a new course, we’ll just continue with the status quo,” she said Monday. “I want to use natural energy, like solar, wind and biomass.”

Before the march, the protesters gathered in Meiji Park to hear speakers address the crowd, including one woman from Fukushima prefecture, Reiko Muto, who described herself as a “hibakusha,” an emotionally laden term for survivors of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Those evacuated from around the plant remain uncertain about when, if ever, they will be able to return to their homes.

Author Kenzaburo Oe, who won the Nobel literature prize in 1994 and has campaigned for pacifist and anti-nuclear causes, also addressed the crowd. He and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who composed the score to the movie “The Last Emperor,” were among the event’s supporters.

MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press, September 19, 2011
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Thousands-march-against-nuclear-power-in-Tokyo-2177440.php

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