TOKYO – Several thousand Japanese anti-nuclear protesters marched
in the rain on Saturday, welcoming a call from the prime minister to shut down a
plant in central Japan and urging him to close more to avoid another nuclear
crisis.
The surprise call from Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday to shut down Chubu
Electric Power Co's Hamaoka plant followed pressure on the government to review
nuclear energy policy after a March 11 quake and tsunami damaged another plant
and triggered the worst disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Tens of thousands of residents around the Fukushima Daiichi plant on the
northeast coast have been ordered to evacuate after radiation leaks into the
air, soil and sea. Radiation checks have led to shipment bans of some vegetables
and fish.
Students, labor union members and parents with children hoisted on their
shoulders marched through Tokyo's bustling Shibuya district to music and chants,
carrying flags written with "Close all nuke plants at once!" and "No More
Fukushima."
"After Chernobyl, we collectively forgot the seriousness, the horror of
nuclear power," said Takashi Enari, a businessman who said he also protested
outside the Fukushima plant after the 1986 disaster in Ukraine.
"I have always thought that they should close Hamaoka. There needs to be a
rethinking of energy policy in this country," he said, as other protesters
marched wearing hazard masks and carrying colorful balloons.
Media said on Saturday that Japan's anti-nuclear movement, small and ignored
by the general public until the Fukushima crisis, could become even more vocal
after Kan's call for a Hamaoka shutdown.
Kan said he made the decision "out of concerns for public safety," citing a
forecast by government experts that put at 87 percent the chance of a magnitude
8.0 quake hitting the area served by Chubu Electric within the next 30
years.
Chubu Electric held a board meeting on Saturday to discuss Kan's decision,
but did not reach a decision on whether to comply with his request, which is not
legally binding.
"The decision is still under discussion," a spokesman said. "We therefore
cannot say when exactly the decision will be made, but we would like to reach
one quickly." Reuters
