Japanese anti-nuclear movement gets stronger

This video is called 200,000 Attend Japan Nuclear PROTEST, Major Media Ignore Massive AntiNuke Demonstration.

By Mike Head:

Ex-prime minister joins Japanese anti-nuclear protest

24 July 2012

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama joined an anti-nuclear demonstration outside his old office last Friday.

His participation was an obvious bid to politically exploit the mounting protest movement against the reactivation of the country’s nuclear reactors. But it was also a further sign of a deepening government crisis over the intense popular opposition to its pro-nuclear energy stance and other pro-business policies.

Ever-larger protests have been held each week since incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda last month gave the go-ahead to begin restarting idled reactors despite persistent public safety concerns following last year’s Fukushima earthquake and nuclear crisis. The government’s rush to reopen the nuclear units, even before new safety regulations have been drafted, re-activated the protests.

According to Asahi Shimbun, about 90,000 people protested outside the prime minister’s office last Friday. The demonstration was the 16th in a row, every Friday night, and the number of participants has grown sharply from the 300 who attended the first protest in March.

In addition, on Monday last week, up to 170,000 protesters took to the streets in Tokyo, making it one of the largest rallies in Japan since the 1960s. Even the police estimate of the crowd, accepted by the state broadcaster NHK, was 75,000. Many participants had directed particular ire at Noda. “Noda! We’re angry!” read one banner. “Noda, step down!” was a common chant.

Alongside political activists, the demonstrations have attracted many newcomers to public protest, ranging from young parents to the elderly. Maki Sekiguchi, a Tokyo office worker attending Monday’s rally with her husband and small child, told the Financial Times she had never been part of a demonstration before recently joining the Friday night crowds around the prime minister’s office. She was sceptical that the protests would persuade the government to halt reactor restarts, but “we feel we have to do something.”

2 reports show Fukushima disaster could have been prevented – will the world listen? Here.

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(Financial Times) — Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy that it has become “really hard” to justify, according to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s largest suppliers of atomic equipment: here.

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