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| Thousands in Japan stage anti-nuclear rally |
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.jpg) Thousands of people staged a rally in front of the Japanese prime minister's office Friday, maintaining anti-nuclear sentiment triggered by last year's atomic crisis at Fukushima.
It was the latest in a string of protests in Japan, which has seen a rising tide of anti-nuclear momentum since Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in June ordered the restart of two reactors.
Noda defended the move citing looming power shortages after Japan switched off its 50 nuclear reactors -- which provided the resource-poor country with a third of its energy -- in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Weekly demonstrations outside the prime minister's residence have drawn thousands of people and a rally in west Tokyo last month saw a crowd that organizers claimed was about 170,000-strong.
"I'm moved by the fact that people voluntarily take action against what can affect our lives," Ryuichi Sakamoto, a musician and composer, told the rally estimated at more than 3,000.
"And I'm coming here as one of you. Let's keep expressing our voice," Sakamoto added.
Noda, reversing his earlier stance, said Friday he was ready to meet representatives of the demonstrators, saying: "I'm arranging the schedule. It will come true not so far from now."
On July 29, thousands of demonstrators holding aloft candles and lights formed a human chain around Japan's parliament in a protest against nuclear power after the Fukushima atomic crisis.
The sea of people illuminated the evening gloom as they surrounded the legislature in Tokyo, the latest development in a snowballing protest movement of the type not seen in sedate Japan for decades.
The protesters are demanding that Japan abandon nuclear power and their movement has been galvanized by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's recent decision to resume using atomic energy after a total shutdown.
Organizers put the number of protesters at 200,000, but police told local media that there were between 10,000 and 20,000 people.
With many clad in gas masks and white protective suits similar to those used in decontamination work at the crippled Fukushima plant, the demonstrators earlier took part in a noisy march through the capital to the parliament.
To the noise of drumming on yellow barrels emblazoned with atomic waste warning symbols, they chanted "we don't need nuclear power" and "stop operating nuclear plants".
"After the Fukushima disaster, I thought that the government and vested interests were telling us lies about nuclear power being safe," said protester Miho Igarashi, 46, an architect from Ibaraki prefecture south of Fukushima.
"We have to raise our voices against" the danger of atomic power, she told AFP.
(Source: AFP)
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