| Growing fears over N-power prompt more Japanese to join protests |
TOKYO Japan’s usually sedate society is angry and getting organised against nuclear power, with the kind of snowballing protest movement not seen for decades.
Weekly demonstrations outside the prime minister’s residence attract tens of thousands of people and a rally in west Tokyo this week drew a crowd organisers claimed at 170,000, demanding an end to atomic power in post-Fukushima Japan.
And as numbers swell there are indications the country’s usually inflexible politicians are getting worried and just might start paying attention.
“Before the disaster, I had never thought of taking part in rallies,” said 22-year-old Yusuke Hasunuma, referring to the tsunami-sparked meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011.
“But now I find it very exciting. It’s great to take action with other people who feel the same,” said Hasunuma, who has become a regular at the Friday evening protests in Tokyo’s political district.
“No one used to care before (the disaster),” said Masaki Yoshida, a mother-of-three who was forced from her Fukushima home by the radiation-spewing plant. “But people now think keeping their mouth shut means saying ‘yes’ to nuclear power.”
Protesters’ demands are simple: Japan should abandon atomic power, a technology that industry, government and regulators had sworn was safe until a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent a towering tsunami crashing into the Fukushima plant.
One by one the country’s nuclear reactors were shuttered for safety checks and by May 5 this year, a technology that had provided a third of Japan’s electricity needs was idle.
But amid warnings the country’s industrial heartland could run perilously short of power over the hot summer, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in June ordered the restarting of two reactors.
That galvanised businessmen, housewives, parents with young children and a large number of elderly people, who came to the conclusion that taking to the streets was not so radical.
For Japan, analysts say, this marks a sea change in public attitudes where demonstrations are things that happen in other countries or belong to the past.
In the still-poor and war-battered 1950s a current of anti-US sentiment, particularly among radical students, sparked often violent rallies where clashes with police resulted in injuries and at least one death.
Then the protests were over an agreement that permits American military bases in pacifist Japan.
“The current anti-nuclear rallies are different from the ones against the US-Japan security treaty,” which had an ideological and political agenda, said Yoshikazu Sakamoto, honorary professor of politics at the University of Tokyo.
“Now, ordinary citizens are participating,” Sakamoto said. “Many of them just feel distrust of and frustration with the government.”
Kiyoshi Abe, professor of media and communication studies at Kwansei Gakuin University, said the large number of elderly people was a key characteristic of the recent movement.
Agence France-Presse
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