10万人集まった！！首相官邸前を見に行こうぜ！！ Friday Night! Let's Drop By the Prime Minister's House (More Event Info on Facebook)
Since March of 2012, people have been gathering in front of the Japanese Prime Minister's Residence every Friday night to express opposition to the restart of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors, which were shut down last year for safety checks, and to call for a new energy policy rooted in greater human security, sustainability, and transparency.Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake prone country, despite the fact that tens of thousands of people in Japan have lost their homes, farms, families and livelihood and must live as evacuees because of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and despite the fact that Fukushima Daiichi continues to contaminate the earth and oceans of the planet, the Japanese government recently restarted nuclear reactors in the town of Ohi.On Friday, June 29, more than 100,000 gathered in front of the Prime Minister's residence in Tokyo, in an astounding display of people demanding to be heard by the government that is supposed to represent them rather than an opaque nuclear industry. The gathering came shortly on the heels of the Tokyo Assembly vetoing down a referendum on the restart of Japan's nuclear reactors, despite the fact that nearly 100,000 more signatures than necessary were collected in order to call for the referendum.Ensconced safely in his home, his livelihood assured, comfortably distanced from the devastating consequences of the nuclear disaster the people of Fukushima are living through every day, the Prime Minister was silent in the face of the massive protest on June 29--as he has been since the protests started in March. His only comment was reportedly to a guard, saying "How noisy!"How many hundreds of thousands of petition signatures can the Prime Minister ignore? How many massive gatherings of people can he pretend to ignore before finally responding to calls for a sane energy policy for Japan--and ultimately for the world? Well, let's find out! On July 6 (Friday), another gathering will be held in front of his official residence. Last week, more than 100,000 people joined. This week, we're aiming to exceed that. Drop by on your way home from work or on your way to a party-- even if only for 15-30 minutes--and play a role in shaping the future of Japan!Access: Kokkaigijidomae Station (on the Chiyoda or Marunouchi Lines), Exit 3Time: 6-9 pmFriday6:00pm until 9:00pm in UTC+09国会議事堂前駅３番出口※大拡散お願いします。前回企画した「４万5千人集まった首相官邸前を見に行こうぜ！！」企画は、、、皆様のおかげで、参加３００人シェア、もう把握不能招待６０００弱集まりました！！！びっくりでしょ？勇気だして、やってみるもんですね。いやいや、僕が一番びっくりしてます。正式にデモの主催が発表したので今回も、呼びかけたいと思います。皆さんよろしくお願いします。関西版も僕の友達がやってます。→http://www.facebook.com/events/181281072002058/【あえて、、、「見に行こうぜ」の思い。】約１０万人の人達が前回の抗議に参加しました。（主催者発表は約２０万人、警察発表は１万７０００人）安保闘争以来の最大抗議となりました。しかし、前回の呼びかけにも書きましたがやはり原発は再稼働する事になりました。僕は違和感を感じます。友達がいってましたよ。「どうせ何しても変わらないよ、、、」「これで変わらなかったら、どこに希望持つの？」僕等の世代はどっか、心のどっかでこの思いが強いと思います。「こういう社会なんだからしょうがない」そんな社会で育ったんですから投票に行く若者が少ない事も納得できますよ、そりゃ。若者の投票率は６０代〜７０代の人の投票数の約１／３しか有りません。こりゃどうしようもないな（笑でも。だから。そういう、人達にこそ来て欲しい！！10万人の人が集まる光景って凄まじいよ。コレは原発に関わらず。「自分達の未来は自分たちで考えてもいいのだ！！！」って事を実感できる場だと思います。僕、自身は原発には本当に反対です。でも、そのスタートとして考えるのも、やになっちゃって、一歩引いてる人って結構居ると思います。だから、まあ反対しろおおおって押し付けるんじゃなくて答えが、どこに有るのか、、、、分からないけど、とりあえず見に行きません？この話は若者だけじゃないかも知れません。この国が今どこに行くのかもう一回一緒に考えましょうよ。よろしくお願いします。奥田愛基デモ後、日比谷公園の端で学生が軽く集まってます。よかったら是非。集まったあと、その後ご飯でも行きましょうよ。
Friday, July 6, 2012
10万人集まった！！首相官邸前を見に行こうぜ！！ Friday Night! Let's Drop By the Prime Minister's House
"ODAKIAS" - Ryuichi Sakamoto's Remix of Demonstrators at the Oi Nuclear Plant restart protest chanting "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!")
Sounds for Our Generation: "ODAKIAS" - Ryuichi Sakamoto's haunting remix of demonstrators at the Oi Nuclear Plant Restart Protest chanting "SAIKADO HANTAI!" ("Against the Re-start!")
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Hydrangea Revolution Supporters in Times Square, NYC: "SAYONARA NUKES"
(Photo: Kiyoko Horvath)
July 1, 2012 - ニューヨークタイムズスクエアから原発反対、再稼働反対のメッセージを送ります。諦めるな、頑張れ日本！（撮影：Kiyoko Horvathさん) — at Times Square, New York City.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Green Action Japan: Why we should be worried about the Oi Nuclear Plant Restart
Oi Nuclear Plant; red lines depict earthquake faults. (Photo: Green Action Japan)
Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan (via Deep Kyoto) tells us why we should be worried:
Estimated number of people living within 30 kilometers of Fukui’s 14 reactors: 1,249,981 (Fukui Shimbun, Oct. 21, 2011)Distance from the Ohi reactors to central Kyoto city: 60 kilometersThe following message is from Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action Japan:The red lines on this photo depict the shattered zones (earthquake faults) under the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant. The information is from Kansai Electric is laid over the Google Earth by Professor Mitsuhisa Watanabe, tectonic geomorphologist, Toyo University (Tokyo, Japan.)The F-6 fault which is suspected of being an active fault is marked. The boat-shaped blue shows the location of the original trench excavation.Professor Watanabe inspected the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant site yesterday (June 27, 2012) with 5 members of the Japanese Diet. He confirmed 3 locations where the F-6 fault which is suspected of being an active fault can be examined by excavation. According to Professor Watanabe, the process to confirm whether this fault is active or not can be undertaken within a one week period (this includes the time required for refilling the excavation).Government regulations state that category “S” equipment which require rigorous seismic resistance standards are “not assumed to be built over active faults.” Yesterday, it was confirmed during the on-site examination that the pipes for the emergency coolant intake from the ocean are “S” category, and they cross over the F-6 fault.The Fukui prefecture newspapers report on the above issue today. Below, see Kansai Electric’s original sketch of the Northwest Wall of the trench. The sketch depicts a classic active fault. This controversial sketch was not submitted by Kansai Electric during the recent government back-check of Ohi.Yuichi Sugiyama, a prominent member of the government’s back-check committee, in an interview with Kyodo (article 26 June) stated, “It is necessary to make an onsite examination of the shattered faults once more. We have only seen part of the past inspection records. We need to examine all of the information.”(Original Japanese of Sugiyama quote:「現地で破砕帯をもう一度調査するべきだろう。過去の調査記録も一部しか見ていないので、全部確認するべきだ。」)
Photos: Oi Restart Protest • Sapporo & Shinjuku Solidarity Protests
(Photo: Serinomichi on FB)
The scene at the Ooi nuclear plant, where activities are due to recommence later today. It appears that the riot police had to climb a mountain to arrive at the plant, as the only road providing access is blocked by protestors. Workers at the plant have been shipped in by ferry....
Sapporo residents demonstrate solidarity with Oi protesters.
(Photo: Hokkaido Shimbun via Escape All Npp on FB)
Two lovely women holding hydrangeas at the Shinjuku solidarity protest today.
(Photo: Ruthie Iida of Faces of Japan)
This evening, the Oi nuclear power plant is due to re-start.Protestors have been camped outside the premises since yesterday evening, blocking the road, making a big noise, and making life miserable for the grim-faced police assigned to protect the entrance of the plant and ensure that work goes on inside as scheduled.Tonight’s NHK news brushed off the pandemonium in Fukui Prefecture and featured a two-hour special on scenic Greece. Other channels continued with the standard game shows and dramas, as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.Well, what’s happening right now is way out-of -the-ordinary, and is being documented by independent news agencies round the clock.
Streaming Videos of "No Restart" Protest Rally at the Oi Nuclear Plant
Head's up from Kimberly Hughes on the streaming video IWJ_OITA1 and Koichi Hanafusa on the Oyasumi Irene. (Another link, Iwakumiyasumi, via Martin Frid at Kurushii)
Demonstrators at the Oi Nuclear Plant restart protest are chanting "Saikado Hantai!" ("Against the Re-start!") like a mantra, prayer; beating instruments...
(Poster for 7.1.12 Oi Nuclear Plant Restart Protest.
Image: www.nihon.jpn.org/nonukes/
(Demonstrators at Oi Nuclear Plant. Photo: Ryusaku Tanaka Journal)
Saturday, June 30, 2012
NOTE THE YELLOW...Post 3.11 Nuclear-Free Japan organizers borrow the color of the Okinawa Movement to express solidarity...
(Demonstrator at June 30 rally in Ginowan City for a V-22 Osprey-free Okinawa.
Photo: Masami Mel Kawamura)
(Photo: Haruko Ishikawa on FB)
The Japanese Nuclear-Free Movement, has now matched the scale of the Okinawan Movement.
The symbolic color, yellow, was intentionally adopted by earlier Post-3.11 Nuclear-Free organizers in Fukushima, to express solidarity with Okinawans protesting US military expansion & V-22 Osprey aircraft deployment in their prefecture, explains Satoko Norimatsu in "Fukushima and Okinawa – the “Abandoned People,” and Civic Empowerment" published by APJ last fall.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Hydrangea Revolution: 100,000-200,000 Japanese citizens rally for a Nuclear-Free Japan
(Photo: Chie Matsumoto on FB)
Kimberly Hughes notes that Bloomberg has reported more than 100 million Japanese citizens are against the nuclear power.
Via Chie Matsumoto, a reporter with LaborNet Japan:
We did it!! Revolution Hydrangea in Japan, where people say there never is a revolution. We figured nearly 100,000 were there.The Diet/PM's office area is the most restricted area for demonstrations, but we flooded onto the streets and started walking toward PM's office in hopes of getting our voices heard.Very peaceful demo. Respect to all who are determined to raise their voices until their fight is won and keep all power plants shut.
Via Temple Valley Times, estimates of rally participants:
Asahi Shimbun: 150-180,000NHK TV: more than last time [next day's report estimated 100,000]Police: about 17,000Rally Organizer: 150,000Sankei Shinbun: less than 20,000TBS TV: 200,000TV Asahi: 40-50,000
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Two Japanese seismologists warn Tokyo against nuclear restart at Ohi Plant in Fukui
Via Reuters, "Seismologists warn Japan against nuclear restart":
Seismic modeling by Japan's nuclear regulator did not properly take into account active fault lines near the Ohi plant, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist at Kobe University, told reporters."The stress tests and new safety guidelines for restarting nuclear power plants both allow for accidents at plants to occur," Ishibashi told reporters. "Instead of making standards more strict, they both represent a severe setback in safety standards."Experts advising Japan's nuclear industry had underestimated the seismic threat, Mitsuhisa Watanabe, a tectonic geomorphology professor at Tokyo University, said at the same news conference."The expertise and neutrality of experts advising Japan's Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency are highly questionable," Watanabe said.After an earthquake in 2007 caused radiation leaks at reactors north of Tokyo, Ishibashi said Japan was at risk of a nuclear disaster following a large earthquake, a warning that proved prescient after Fukushima.While it is impossible to predict when earthquakes will happen, Ishibashi said on Tuesday the magnitude 9 quake last year made it more likely "devastating" earthquakes would follow.
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