Via The Japan Times Online: Antinuke demonstrators form human chain around Diet building. Excerpt:
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people including ordinary citizens and antinuclear activists gathered in Tokyo Sunday afternoon to form a human chain around the Diet building, calling for the abolition of nuclear power plants and putting more pressure on the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
In the past, protest rallies around the Diet were usually organized by political parties and labor unions. But like many other rallies organized in the aftermath of the triple meltdowns that erupted in the Fukushima disaster, Sunday's was attended by many nonactivist citizens.
"This is really a very hot summer, but although none of the nuclear power plants of Tokyo Electric Power Co. are operating, we're not short of electricity in Tokyo," said Keiko Ochai, an author who is among the organizers of the rally.
"We have to push for the halting of the Oi nuclear power plant, and need to keep the government from restarting other nuclear power plants," she said, referring to the nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture at which two reactors have been reactivated following safety checkups mandated in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Protesters gathered at around 3:30 p.m. at Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward under a scorching sun with hand-made signs and banners in their hands.
After marching roughly 1.5 km through the Uchisaiwaicho district and close to JR Shinbashi station, the protesters surrounded the Diet building holding candles and penlights to put more pressure on lawmakers to stop the planned reactivation of more nuclear reactors.
The organizer, Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes, an association of antinuclear citizens' groups, initially planned to provide candles to every participant, but with the number of attendees ballooning, they decided to hand them out only to those who were able to stand near the main entrance of the Diet building.
Some of the participants said they were attending an antinuclear rally for the first time.
Another story in The Japan Times Online reports five deaths and 1,500 hospitalizations due to the intense heat.
