Anti-Nuke, Anti-Noda Protest in Funabashi, Chiba Started

"7.15 What a big demonstration! We need anti-nuke demos to protect the citizens' living! Slaying Noda [as in slaying a fictional monster] Demonstration Part 2 - Drus of Fury" just started.

It looks like a nice, hot sunny day in Funabashi, Prime Minister Noda's constituency. People are of good cheer.

Live netcast by IWJ's Chiba Channel 1.

Live streaming by Ustream

Unlike the protest at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo, people here seem free to say anything. The head of the Japan Communist Party just spoke in front of a cheering crowd of ordinary citizens.

One of the organizers is saying "Let's make the protest into 30,000-strong..." I think 300 hundred people or so all over Chiba, or Japan for that matter, is just fine.

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July 15: "Take the Yellow Train (Sobu Line) to Funabashi (Noda's Constituency), Make the Sound of Drums Heard!" Demo from 1PM in Funabashi, Chiba

I think I like these organizers.

Clearly including the ones who organized the very fun protest on June 24 in Funabashi City, Chiba (Prime Minister Noda's constituency), the group of people calling themselves "Drums of Fury" is doing another protest in Funabashi. Participants are encouraged to take the "Yellow Train" - JR Sobu Line that goes from the western Tokyo into Chiba.

This protest looks to be fun again, if I judge by their blog page.

There are many who legitimately ask "How effective are these protests? They haven't achieved anything." I do share that sentiment, particularly when I see people falling for made-up symbols and slogans that have little to do with what's been happening in Japan since March 11, 2011. But on the other hand, it is still amazing to me, as a Japanese, to see Japanese people having been able to focus their attention to anything nuclear for the past 16 months. I've always thought (still think) the Japanese collectively have "attention deficit disorder". So, keeping doing something like protest marches all over Japan, no matter how small or large, may itself be worthwhile.

After all, to express discontent to the authorities using drums, music, dance, ridicule, and marching on the streets and roads is a wonderful Japanese tradition for centuries.

Anyway, if you live along the JR Sobu Line (yellow train) and want to participate, here's the tongue-in-cheek details, making fun of what PM Noda has said in the past. (Oh and there are several Funabashi merchants offering discounts for the protest participants, just like on June 24. Check out the maps at the organizer's site.)

“7.15大きなデモだね！国民の生活を守るために脱原発デモが必要だ！”野田退治デモ第２弾
"7.15 What a big demonstration! We need anti-nuke demos to protect the citizens' living!" Slaying Noda [as in slaying a fictional monster] Demonstration Part 2

["What a big demonstration" is a pun on Noda's comment that the protest outside the PM Official Residence was "a big sound". "We need anti-nuke demos ..." is a pun on Noda's reason for starting Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.]

集合西船近隣公園(前回と同じ)
集会13：30
出発14：00
解散は天沼弁天池公園です！(これも前回と同じ)

Starting place: Nishifuna Kinrin Park (same as before)
Meeting will start at 1:30PM
March will depart at 2PM
Ending place: Amanuma Bentenike Park (same as before)

【呼びかけ】
首相官邸前抗議など、日本各地で「原発をなくそう！」「再稼働反対！」と声が高まる中、
野田首相は事もあろうに抗議の声を「大きな音」だねと警備に当たる警官に漏らしたそうです。
一方で「国民の声を受け止めたい」と言いながら、抗議の声は「音」でしかないならば、
怒りの「声」をもっと「大きな音」で叩き付けて、無視出来ないデモにしようと企画されました。
野田首相の選挙区内で、彼を支持し期待した方もきっと多く居たはずの船橋で、
MC 悪霊のコールと言葉と共に、怒りを叩き付けに行きます。
何卒よろしくお願いします。

Our call
As the voices rise in various parts of Japan against nuclear power plants and against the restart of these plants including the protest at the PM Official Residence, Prime Minister Noda has reportedly commented on the protest voice to the police guarding the Residence, "It is a big sound." If the voice of protest is nothing but a "sound" to him, let's make our "voice" of anger into a really big sound and hit him so hard that he cannot ignore. That's the purpose of this demonstration. We are going to hit hard with our anger and our MC "Akuryo (Evil Spirit)" the constituency of Prime Minister Noda, Funabashi City, where there must have been many people who supported him and expected great things out of him.
We look forward to having you there.

主催：脱原発船橋（仮） ＋ 怒りのドラムデモ実行委員会
後押し：黄色い電車連合
協力：ロフトプロジェクト
賛同：原発さよなら千葉

Sponsors: Beyond Nuke Funabashi + Drums of Fury Executive Committee
Support: Yellow Train Alliance
Help: Loft Project
Approval: Genpatsu [nuke plant] Sayonara Chiba

[LOL...]

「黄色い電車連合」時刻表　ＪＲ総武線1105C
JR Sobu Line Time Table (train 1105C) from Yellow Train Alliance
三鷹 Mitaka 11:43発
西荻窪 Nishiogikubo 11:48
阿佐ヶ谷 Asagaya 11:53
中野 Nakano 11:57
新宿 Shinjuku 12:04
飯田橋 Iidabashi 12:15
秋葉原 Akihabara 12:22
西船橋 Nishibunabashi 12:48着
※先頭車両
Take the first car.

【出演】
MC悪霊（illeastrecords ）＆DJ M28

Appearance:
MC Akiryo, DJ M28

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Protest in Funabashi, Chiba (PM Noda's Hometown) Again, June 30 from 2PM, Demanding Halt of Ooi Restart and Noda Resignation

Sorry for the last minute notice for the readers in Japan.

Inspired by the fun and successful protest march through the city of Funabashi in Chiba on June 24 organized by a anti-nuclear group in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, a different group is doing the protest in the hometown of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

(For June 24 Funabashi protest, see my post here, here and here.)

The organizers say they will be protesting against the restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant and demanding PM Noda to resign.

The protest will be at the JR Funabashi Station, from 2PM to 4PM.

Apparently Mr. Noda is very much dismayed at the protests happening in his hometown.

If you're not going, you can still view the USTREAM netcast at Yasumi Iwakami's channel, here: http://ustre.am/zArR

People are already gathering.

I wonder if the pubs and restaurants and coffee shops in Funabashi City are offering "demo discount" again...

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How It Was Like in June 24 Protest Against Ooi Restart and PM Noda in Funabashi (PM Noda's Hometown)

I watched bits and pieces of the USTREAM live stream and it was fun. I was laughing as I watched. Here's a report from one of the readers of this blog who was there, and it seems it was indeed fun:

Hello everyone, I was there and it was fun ! People on the streets looked absolutely stunned, like it was the first demonstration of their life (and possibly so!). But many smiled or waved back to us, though I also saw some of them obviously not satisfied with the demonstration (I'm thinking about one particular elderly lady who shaked her head saying "No!" to us). The music was great, the slogans too. There was a young man, mike in hands, who used the shops'names or buildings'names to shout slogans, and it was irresistibly funny, like (near a hairdresser's) : "Let's save the hairdresser from radiations! Let's save him from Noda!" or: (near a sake and tobacco shop) : "Let's save tobacco ! let's save it from radioactivity ! Let's save it from Noda! Let's protect sake! Let's protect it from radiations!" The Suginami-ku group is just so full of energy and so creative (always), it's very exciting to be around them ! Good deed and good time altogether.

By the way, to answer the question: yes, we rode the SOBU sen in big numbers, especially in the front car of the train. When I was at Shinjuku station, waiting for the 13:04 train, I spotted a few people wearing yellow (like myself) and talked to a gentleman who was obviously also going to NishiFunabashi (in a yellow Tee Shirt, with a yellow ribbon around his hat). We rode the train together and talked all the way about nuclear plants in Japan and in France and about how to convince people to take part into demonstrations in bigger numbers.
Everyone was very, very friendly and I spotted people I met before in demonstrations elsewhere.

To round up the good time, as I posted as an update yesterday, local pubs in Funabashi decided to offer discounts to demonstrators for a drink after the 2-hour walk. Smart. Good "imprinting" too - out-of-town people who come for anti-nuke demonstration are good for local businesses.

Asahi Shinbun reported on this protest, perhaps because the number of participants was safely below 10,000, with this picture:

The caption of the photo says:

Participants holding up the portraits of Prime Minister Noda and protesting against the restart of nuclear power plants, walking in the prime minister's constituency.

They do look like they are having a good time.

(H/T Reader 'Janick' who was there)

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June 24 Demonstration in Funabashi, Chiba (PM Noda's Hometown) Going On Right Now

(UPDATE) Funabashi Protest is over now. Organizers say 2,250 people participated. It looks like a great success and fun. Orderly event. Over 9,000 people viewed it on USTREAM.

And it looks like some pubs in Funabashi are doing "Demo Discount" for the participants. Excellent business acumen.

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From Yasumi Iwakami's IWJ USTREAM:

Free live streaming by Ustream

(Chibaguy, are you there?)

With music and prompting from an accompanying car (they have DJs in the car), people with something yellow on them are walking the street of Funabashi, Chiba. This is fun. Protesters look just ordinary people.

I wonder if they rode the yellow Sobu Line together.

For details of this unique protest, see my previous post.

There are also smaller protests in Osaka and in Saitama. IWJ's USTREAM channels:

Osaka: http://t.co/V9v7bGe8
Saitama: http://t.co/R5vRkRw1

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