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Thousands rally against nuclear power in Tokyo

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Morons. Send them the bills for the massive increases in energy costs and they'll quickly change their tune. Their is no alternative for Japan but nuclear energy.

-18 ( +12 / -30 )

I support these people with all my heart!

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Why do some people protest strongly against the nuclear plants which has not killed anybody by now while people are resigned about the natural disasters of earthquakes and the following tsunami which killed tens of thousand of people. Why don't they say people should not live in the Pacific coastal areas of Tohoku where the disasters have repeated historically.

-12 ( +6 / -18 )

Why do some people protest strongly against the nuclear plants which has not killed anybody by now

Indirectly this is not true. How many suicides can be attributed to Fukushima? And not just deaths, but how many tens of thousands of people have been uprooted and made refugees in their own country due to Fukushima? How many centuries will people be unable to live in the area around Fukushima?

Some of these nuclear reactors here were built in areas that should never have been used for such a purpose and are potential disasters only waiting for the next "big one" to hit.

Until alternative sources of energy are online, prudent use of the reactors that are in relatively safe locations needs to be considered. But once the country can ween itself off of their use, of all places, this country should get rid of all the reactors.

8 ( +13 / -5 )

7500 protesters. thats 0.006% of population

-9 ( +7 / -16 )

@umbrella Morons?!? You are talking about highly respective Nobel prize winner. I guess you don't have one. You just worry about 1.000-2.000 yen increase of your electric bill. You don't care about Fukushima people life. Destroyed fishermans and farmers life. People like you should go help to clean up Daichi, that you get at least a glitch on the tragedy which happened there. Who is moron now?

14 ( +18 / -4 )

7500 protesters. thats 0.006% of population

We are talking about Japan, that is not prone to protest, so that's a decent number, way better than 40 or 100 anti-korean protesters reported in another recent article (these are ridiculous numbers).

6 ( +9 / -3 )

We are talking about Japan, that is not prone to protest, so that's a decent number,

They need to learn to take a page out of the Okinawan book of how to protest things. Sadly 7,500 in a city with a population that has roughly 10% of the total of all the people in Japan, is not that great. If Okinawa can get 100,000 for an anti-base rally, from a population of 1.3 million, these protesters need to get better organized.

They have a valid argument, and they need more support from people all over the country.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

@Yubaru: indeed I said it's a "decent number", not a "great number".

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@Yubaru: indeed I said it's a "decent number", not a "great number".

I can read, and 7,500 is not "decent" either for such a heated issue. 7,500 is more like the number of people who walk across a busy street in Tokyo at any given time of the day.

The apathy of the populous is obvious.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Nuclear umbrellas, golden parachutes... the beat goes on...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Send them the bills for the massive increases in energy costs

that MASSIVE increases in energy costs today is directly the result of accumulation of past electricity operators negligence in safety (and the weak yen, thanks to abenomic).

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Send them to dig into the ocean in search of fuels!

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

0.006% of population doesn't know science.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

soldave I was referring to the 95' rally which had reportedly 85,000 to 100,000 protesters after the rape incident.

Look at that picture.

http://www.japanfocus.org/data/Okinawa1.jpg

Moderator: You're on the wrong thread.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

OK, I get it. They are scared sh.... less about radiation after WWII.

However, using up all of the worlds resources for energy is not the way to go. Nuclear power is clean, cheaper & lasts longer than natural resources. The things is, the plants need to be well maintained & preferably in an area far enough away from humans that, in the event of a meltdown, fall out would have minimal affect on them.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

@Mark Elrod

Maybe the Fukushima Nuclear disaster has something to do with it?

Umbrella does have a point , people will get less vocal against nuclear power if the use of other energy sources will cut too much in their wallet

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I live in USA where Power companies do not use nuclear energy. Many new houses have solar energy power box, along solar panels on entire roofs. Energy companies have been complaining their business has been decreasing as solar energy power using houses stop power companies services. Never heard of Nuclea Enefgy used power company in USA. Educate me how it works in Japan.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

historically speaking, protests movements in japan have always failed. Take for example the 50s, 60, and 70s.. the only notable protest movements, would be the trade unions, and the corresponding national strikes, which led to one thing - life time employment, the trade unions have been sidelined ever since.. an occasional rally within corporate quarters, authorized by the top brass.

Even when people died, including the narita airport protests, .. nothing much changed (the security checks are still there nonetheless).

So, from a historical perspective, instead of 7500 people, one requires 1-2 million people across Japan, protesting at once. Alas, for the 7500 people, they will always say, the majority of the public supports us, albeit the "silent" majority.

fundamental democracy in Japan has died.. possibly because the protest movements in the past, notably the student protest movement that fizzled out, were orchestrated by the politicians that are in power at the moment.. sigh..

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I wonder how many of the protesters voted for the Abe government. Or, better still, I wonder how many actually voted at all.

@Umbrella - The higher energy bills are to pay for the nuclear disaster and have very little to do with fuel costs.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I bet those active 7,500 in Tokyo represent the inner feelings of at least 75,000,000 throughout Japan.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@ZichiL There are 104 commercial nuclear energy plants in USA. *69 pressurized water reactor, 35 boiling reactors) They are fir commercial use, not for power companies which customers are homes. Areja, Westinghouse, and General Electric are 3 ot large commercial users. Obama's story is old when he failed after Fukushima failure because the ones Obnama was permitting had the same system of Fukushima components. No, no utility companies for homes. I can write on and on for details that include failed waste burying plan by Ny County in Nevada but since this is the story of demonstration that I stop here.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

All readers back on topic please. Other countries are not relevant to this discussion.

well, unlike 99.004% of population, I would like to know where we are going to avoid 2011/3 to reproduce and also what is really doing TEPCO with my tax money ? Certainly not paying for the decontamination as the Gov't eyes suing the operator, owned by 51%, over unpaid decontamination costs (another extra 16.5 billion yen supported by taxpayer btw).

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In response to the number of protesters compared to Okinawa, can I assume that the police/government controlled the number of people entering the area as they have done before? I know this doesn't happen when the anti base protesters protest.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

abe resign please.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

From what I saw yesterday, the protestors were marching in packs (to minimize traffic disruption) and each pack represented a prefectural general workers union. The Kyoto union of general workers, the Osaka union of general workers, the Ibaraki Union, etc.. There may have been some non-union groups - I wasn't paying them that much attention. I did see some later that were in costumes and even a juggler and a baton twirler. I'd guess they were NOT part of a workers union. The union folks tended to be older and simply dressed.

There were more people than usual. To address someone's question, above, I'm guessing these are primarily people who don't vote LDP anyway. The messages on their vehicles were mixed. "NTT must pay workers! and No Nukes".

Is there anyone here who can explain the connection between general workers unions and the anti-nuclear power movement?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Is there anyone here who can explain the connection between general workers unions and the anti-nuclear power movement?

Unions here are confusing as all get out. We have one down here that represents the base workers but is anti-base. So depending upon the flavor of the day, today being "anti-nuke", lord only knows what or who they will support on any given day.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@disillusioned

The higher energy bills are to pay for the nuclear disaster and have very little to do with fuel costs.

Please take your fairy tales somewhere else. The extra natural gas and other fuels imported to generate the missing nuclear plant capacity runs into the billions if not trillions of yen. Not to mention the huge extra amount of CO2 and the extra pollution. Pollution that is known to cause various medical problems and contribute to many early deaths.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

It hurts to admit, but without at least SOME of these plants coming on line Abenomics (which is questionable in the first place) is destined to fail. The weak yen is pushing up the cost of all the energy imports and will eventually lead to stagflation (low growth, high inflation). Japan needs to be smart about its energy policy and restart the safest plants while aggressively investing in improving the grid and getting alternative energy projects online.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Anti-nuclear movement in Japan is backed by anti-social organization, anarchist, communist.

They are not the ordinary citizens.

They are active in Japan.

Opposition to the U.S. military base, to spread the comfort women issue, to interfere with the construction of a public facility, they oppose the constitutional amendment.

There are action principles that are common to them.

It is a "weakening of Japan".

Part of the Japanese media are also tuning.

Root of the problem of this series is linked.

Japanese conservatives are protesting against them. It is not a nationalist.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Japan2013,

Surely you are joking, the Japanese conservative government is the one that got us all in this mess in the first place.. doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different out come is often considered insanity.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Yubaru:

The apathy of the populous is obvious.

Yeah, I agree, for this I said it is a decent number, because I know the apathy of the average Japanese person towards every kind of problem. So, it's a decent number considering "Japanese standard".

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yubaru, quote: "The apathy of the populous (sic) is obvious."

Japan's populace are quietly taking great interest in the future role of nuclear power in Japan.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Even if you take the view that Japan needs some nuclear power plants running (either for a decade or longer), the people have a right to be angry that some of the most dangerous power plants are being considered to be restarted (i.e. Oi 1 and 2). Also there was gross human incompetence/ fraud in how 3-11 was handled with with respect to the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. People like former president Shimizu and other execs as well as some high level bureaucrats should be in prison now. I hope everyone can at least agree on that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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