Tokyo - Anti-nuclear power rallies were held throughout Japan on Sunday. Two rallies were held in Tokyo alone. Japan's public broadcasting company, NHK, put the number of demonstrators taking part in a protest near TEPCO headquarters at 2,000. A much larger rally held on the western edge of Tokyo boasted 15,000 participants. Those are impressive numbers for the anti-nuke movement to turn out in a country still reeling from the double punch delivered by Mother Nature only a month ago.
As radioactive clouds loom over the horizon the outlook for a nuclear-free future in Japan is hazy at best. The drama of today's protests played out against the backdrop of elections that secured the seats of two staunch nuclear power proponents. The gubernatorial reelection of nuclear power advocates, Shintaro Ishihara in Tokyo and Issei Nishikawa in Japan's western prefecture of Fukui, (home to the MOX-fueled Monju reactor) is an ominous sign of the obstacles that lie ahead for Japan's no-nuke movement.
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