July 29 Protest to Surround the National Diet Building to Express "Beyond Nuclear" Sentiment

According to the organizers who skipped the Friday protest this week to concentrate on this supposedly big event, the details are as follows:

Location: Hibiya Park Nakawaiwai Gate (日比谷公園中幸門)
3:30 to 4:30PM: meeting
4:00PM: starting demonstration
7:00PM: surround the National Diet Building (candle light-up)
8:00PM: end the protest

The route map by the organizers:

The purpose of this protest? The organizers' site just says "脱原発" ('datsu genpatsu', beyond nuclear power plants). I suppose the purpose is to express one's wish, or hope, for a nuclear-free world. In other words, the purpose of the protest is to gather together.

If any of the readers of this blog in Japan is going, please let us know how it goes.

On Friday, people gathered anyway at the Prime Minister's Official Residence at 6PM, just as the organizers were giving a press conference at the same time and some members of the organizers were tweeting until the last moment telling people not to go to the protest.

There were several organizers in this Friday's event, some of whom were being criticized by the organizers in the press conference. They announced there were 2,800 protesters (it looked bigger than that to me, watching it on USTREAM). There were people voicing objection to PM Noda, to sales tax, to TPP, nuclear power plant, protesting against unfair treatment of Fukushima I Nuke Plant workers, demanding protection for children in Fukushima. Some tweeted, essentially, "Free at last."

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