Protesters of all ages, raging from young people to the elderly who had witnessed WWII, braved the rain to participate in the rally. Many people arrived with their children. The demonstrators were singing songs, shouting slogans and waving banners and placards as they demanded that the bill be defeated and Shinzo Abe leave office.
“War is over!” “No War!” “No to war, yes to peace!”“Peace not war” and “Stop the security bills,” as well as “Abe, quit!” and “Stop Abe!” were among the slogans featured on the posters, with some placards depicting the Prime Minister as a warmonger, or even Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
A huge black and white banner adorned with balloons reading “Abe should step down” was displayed in the middle of the crowd.
Sunday’s rally, which was organized by several protest groups, was among the most massive protests in Japan in recent years, with organizers putting the number of participants at 120,000. Japanese police estimated that only 30,000 protesters came to the parliament building.
Ken Takada, one of the chief organizers, compared the Sunday protest to Japan’s biggest civil demonstration ever back in 1960, when people gathered near the parliament to protest a Japan-US security treaty revision. Police estimated the turnout for that rally at about 130,000, while the organizers claimed it was 300,000.
Famous Japanese musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto joined the rally and delivered a speech before the protesters. Sakamoto is famous for winning two Golden Globes and a Grammy, as well as an Oscar awarded for composing the music to ‘the Last Emperor’ film.
Several opposition party leaders also attended the protest, including Katsuya Okada, head of Japan’s largest opposition party – the Democratic Party of Japan.
“We need to make the Abe government realize the public is having a sense of crisis and angry. Let’s work together to have the bills scrapped,” Katsuya Okada said addressing the demonstrators.
Many protesters expressed their frustration to the media, along with their reasons for attending the rally.
“If I were to describe Japan with one phrase, it would be ‘a peaceful nation.’ But, right now, the unimaginable, the unrealistic is happening, where peace is being destroyed. That fear is being cast upon this nation right now,” said one of the protesters, university professor Mami Aoji, as quoted by Euronews.
“Japan should not become a country that wages war. Besides, Japan must build a good relationship with its Asian neighbours,” added another female demonstrator.
“If I don’t take action and try to put a stop on this, I will not be able to explain myself to my child in the future,” Naoko Hiramatsu, an associate professor in French, who came to the protest with her four-year-old son, told Reuters.
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