so reports Tokyo Brown Tabby, in the cat's very first participation in any demonstration.
10,000 may not seem big to the US or European readers. But in the Japanese context, it is simply unprecedented to have that many people in the middle of the largest metropolis in Japan in protest against the national government policy (restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui).
From TBT's blog:
long long long neat rows of many many people
taro Yamamoto spoke
「noda
your speech was simply a love letter to nuclear village
didn't strike anyone elses heart 」
more rows of people
10000 people
organizer announced
finished at 8Pm in an orderly manner
on the train back home now
it was fun
I'll come back
TBT and others who joined the crowd say they were just ordinary people - mothers and fathers with children, salarymen and OLs on the way home from work, etc.
Independent journalist Yasumi Iwakami tweets it was 11,000 people in front of the PM's Official Residence in Tokyo. His outfit, IWJ, netcasted the event and the one in Osaka in front of KEPCO headquarters live.
In contrast, the Japanese MSMs told the viewers about everything but the protests against the restart - Aum Shinrikyo member arrest was the top news. By now, even the ordinary Japanese have caught up with their antics.
NHK Kabun (culture and science division) tweets "It's 41 days since all nuclear power plants in Japan stopped." People reply to this tweet by saying, "And you continue to ignore the protest in front of the PM Official Residence against the restart."
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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8 comments:
Good for you! More than just protesting, people should prepare to take direct action including boycotts and voting with their money.
For example, in Greece and in Europe, lots of people are taking their money out of the banks as a way to show their displeasure with the banking and financial system in that country. More and more people are buying silver and gold with their paper money.
The banking and nuclear industries are part of the same military-industrial-financial complex that have exerted their influence on society in very negative and destructive ways.
You need more people at these peaceful protests. Japan is finished after the next meltdown, which will happen if nuclear restarts. The time to act is now! Time to wake up!
Anon@1:29pm: Attendance at these friday evening unhappy hours have grown elevenfold over the past 7 weeks.
If each of those who came last night can be encouraged to bring at least two friends to the next one, and then each of them bring two firends to the one after that, and so on for the next seven weeks, then the entire population of the tokyo metropolitan area -30,000,000 people - would be in front of the PM's residence before the summer is over.
Now we all know that won't happen, but if you look at the trend, there is a clear snowball forming and Noda will need to get out of the way before it overtakes him.
I am thinking that gathering in front of the Kantei has less visibility than, say, demonstrating along Aoyama dori and Omotesando on a weekend afternoon.
Sure Beppe, and whenever you organize this demonstration please let us know, we will gladly join.
Beppe is an armchair protester, or virtual protester. Can't be bothered. All he does is to criticize.
Anonymous@7:00 does not know what he is talking about, besides being anonymous.
I was at the Kantei on Fri. evening and having been able to gather that many people was an outstanding job. My comment was just an attempt to help: if we do not get any coverage after gathering that many people maybe doing something similar where you can at least be seen could help? The demonstration that occourred some time ago along Aoyama dori, Omotesando and then well into Inokashira dori was impressive and got more coverage. For sure it was seen live by more people than the few taxis that took notice of us on Friday. Or maybe we could drive around riding buses and shout "再稼働やめろ" from its windows: 10,000 people / 50 people per bus = 200 buses: hard not to get noticed. Just my two pennies.
JA@
Beppe, maybe people can emulate those ultra-right nationalists on black trucks blaring patriotic songs and messages. They've been tolerated for decades by authorities.
I think the Friday protest was ignored by the MSM because it was not a generic "anti-nuke" protest but against a specific nuclear power plant and the specific policy about that plant by this administration, and because these people were at the PM Official Residence in particular. Way more focused for their comfort.
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