Even the Japanese MSM had to report the events somewhat, which means the number of participants throughout Japan was probably significant even for the MSM.
That doesn't stop them from downplaying the number, though. Just like the US MSM.
The best (for MSM) coverage goes to Asahi Shinbun, who treated the news of the nationwide events as one of the top news. The article at Asahi has pictures and videos of the protests in various parts of the country, and pins the number of participants as follows:
- 20,000 in one demonstration in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, quoting the number by the event organizer;
- 200 in Koriyama-City, Fukushima Prefecture.
No other information on any other events. There were at least 14 events in Tokyo that were carried live on the net. Including the events that weren't net-casted, there were over 20 events in Tokyo alone. Throughout Japan, the 6.11 No-Nukes site lists 174 events worldwide.
Moving on, Sankei Shinbun only reports on the event in Yoyogi Park in Tokyo:
- 1,500 people
Yomiuri Shinbun is even more hilarious, and the only number the paper is willing to put out is:
- 200 people in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture
Kyodo News says several thousands in Paris, but no number for any event in Japan.
Mainichi Shinbun doesn't even carry the news.
Unofficial numbers for some events in Tokyo and Kanagawa, from the tweets:
- 20,000 in Shinjuku, Tokyo
- 6,000 in Shiba Park, Tokyo
- 1,500 in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo
- 700 in Kunitachi City, Tokyo
- 4,000 Yokohama, Kanagawa
Not too bad for a rainy day and for a country not used to go against any official, government policy.
BBC and the US's NPR reported the Tokyo number as 5,000.
New York Times has an article on the event in Tokyo (probably Shinjuku, as the article say 20,000 people attended), which concludes with a cynical remark by a bystander, a 21-year-old girl, saying "It looks fun, but if you think anything will change, it’s naïve."
You watch, girl.
Usual detractors are there in numbers, too; there are tweets attacking those who attended the demonstrations, calling them "naive idiots" for ignoring the need for electricity generated by the nuke plants. Hey just like the girl in the NYT article...
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14 comments:
NHK's English service said 2000 were at the Tokyo protest it covered though it did give one speaker the time to make his basic point that it could happen again if Japan continues to rely on nuclear power.
Protest marches aside, NHK has been running two incredible documentaries this weekend. One chronicles the efforts of a group of private citizens ( with nuclear expertise) to put together a map of the nuclear radiation. The other, and perhaps the more important one, is an attempt to establish a chronology of the events in the hours after the Fukushima power plant was disabled. If, perhaps, overly sympathetic to the government's actions, it is a brilliant production that, I hope, NHK will make available for download. Have you seen it?
"You watch, girl"
Watch what? I suspect she has a better reading of Japanese attitudes than you. I'd be happy to be proved wrong, yet it seems this is not the crisis needed to make people wake up in this country.
crisis isn't over, anger is still building.
Expect when the miscarriage rate starts rising and the deformed children start getting born to see things come to a boil.
"Expect when the miscarriage rate starts rising and the deformed children start getting born to see things come to a boil."
Sorry, I don't expect any change, just continued decline.
@anon at 5:49PM, I used to be as resigned and cynical like that girl. After having been that way for a few decades and being Japanese at the same time, I think I've had enough of that for myself. Good luck with that girl.
So what's the grand total?? Did 50,000 people turn out around the country? Probably not that many. Hard to tell. As for 'You watch, girl,' I've been living in this country for a lot longer than she has been alive. I think she's pretty sharp, but at the same time I have never seen so many Japanese people angry over one particular issue at the same time as they are about NPPs now. PLUS the papers are FULL of nuke issues every day. The issue seems to be stronger now than getting rid of the LDP was at election time 2009. I think maybe the girl may indeed have to watch out.
@Antony
So what is the next step - bring back the LDP? By the way, have you seen anywhere/anytime the LDP actually admit to their complicity in Japan's Nuclear policy, TEPCO's corruption etc?
My money is still on the Japanese people doing nothing about Fukushima/dangerous NPPs - it is not in their nature to challenge TPTB. I would be happy to lose that money, but I'm pretty sure it is a safe bet.
Anonymous wrote: "NHK has been running two incredible documentaries this weekend. One chronicles the efforts of a group of private citizens ( with nuclear expertise) to put together a map of the nuclear radiation. The other, and perhaps the more important one, is an attempt to establish a chronology of the events in the hours after the Fukushima power plant was disabled. If, perhaps, overly sympathetic to the government's actions, it is a brilliant production that, I hope, NHK will make available for download. Have you seen it?"
I did see "A contamination map"; this film is really great, hope it to be avalaible for downloading, or on European TV. Hope BBC or german ARTE will buy it, but there is a real blackout in France about this japanese nuclear crisis. Too much money (and politics issues) at stake!
So if anyone has a link for downloading... thanks a lot!
a blackout in France, and this punk,
"During a visit last month to the Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France – the fifth-largest in the world – President Nicolas Sarkozy renewed his country’s commitment to the industry and described post-Fukushima fears over nuclear safety as “medieval” and “irrational”."
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d27a57fe-8d2e-11e0-bf23-00144feab49a.html
more on France,
"Roland Desbordes, president of French NGO Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, contests the commonly cited notion that the French broadly support their country’s nuclear power production. “French nuclear policy was not chosen by the French people,” he told FRANCE 24.
“We know that, because all the big nuclear development projects were widely protested in France. Wherever there are strong autonomist movements, as in Brittany or Corsica, there are no nuclear reactors.”
According to Desbordes, while countries like Switzerland and Germany have engaged in “real democratic debate on the matter”, the debate in France has been stifled in part by a complicit political class.
“French politicians are pressured by lobbies,” he said. “If you’re a politician and want to travel on the cheap to all corners of the globe, you sign up for a seminar run by Areva.”"
http://www.france24.com/en/20110531-german-plants-leaves-france-pondering-its-own-nuclear-future-roland-desbordes
any leaders that are "for" nuclear power are demented and paid off by the corporate nuclear power industry. germany and switzerland are smart, japan wont get the message until all the cancer deaths and mutilated babies are born in five years or so.the heads of TEPCO should commit suicide if they have any honor left.
google:lauren moret. The real tragedy for the Japanese people and the world peoples. These are war crimes against humanity. The very lest the heads of GE,Westinghouse, TEPCO etc should spend the rest of there lives prison.
@Aimelle
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v20982554AEAKc4JS
http://vimeo.com/24184476
Anonymous wrote: "So what is the next step - bring back the LDP? By the way, have you seen anywhere/anytime the LDP actually admit to their complicity in Japan's Nuclear policy, TEPCO's corruption etc?" 1) Absolutely not! 2) Of course not! What I'm wondering is, now that Japanese people are a little less in the dark about how nuclear power has been promoted in this country, will they still vote for the same old LDP cronies they've been voting for for the last 50 years? The general election of 2009, won by the JDP (let's not forget where many of them came from!) suggests there's a possibility they won't. People are also not too happy about the JDP, either. So there are two problems. 1) Local people might actually dislike the LDP/JDP nationally, but vote for the same old 'sensei' locally. 2) There needs to be a viable third political force which doesn't exist now: Yoshimi Watanabe's Minna no To? Well, he's an old LDP man anyway... Japan Communist Party? 'fraid not. That's why the girl might be right. But if people are *angry* enough, she might still be wrong.
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