TOKYO UPDATE

Upcoming Protests:

Sat/Sun April 19/20
Earth Day Tokyo - Love and Peace

News:

April 5 2003

A genki 18,000 people braved icy wind and rain in Shibuya today under the World Peace Now banner to protest against a war that has little direct impact on their lives, and against a government that has been bullied into supporting it. I met the march at the Parco building, and nestled in amongst a group of nihonjin mumbling english slogans: "World Peace", "No War". With a bit of coaxing I had them shouting the same slogans by the time we came to the closed UN building. A little further on I was spotted by a japanese news crew who first filmed me shouting for a while, then suddenly confronted me with an english speaking interviewer who'd been rushed to the scene. He asked me where I was from, what I thought about the war, and why I was marching today. The march then proceeded through the busy and trendy Omote-sando, and up through Harajuku to Yoyogi, where fresh dry marchers were about to embark upon the 1 1/4 hour route. So I went a second time around, this time joining a group of mostly middle-aged Japanese women representing an association of high school teachers which had taken out an anti-war advertisement in the newspaper that day. Impressed with my pronounciation and volume they lent me a megaphone, and I led them in chants of "Senso Hantai" ("we are opposed to war"), and "Senso Yamero" (literally: "don't war").
More Info & Pictures

April 3 2003

Bye War, Hello Kitty [alternatives.ca] Opinion polls indicate that the vast majority of Japanese citizens are against a war on Iraq. Despite this, the Japanese government has been giving the United States its steadfast support for the war, first in the UN and now as one of 35 countries in the "coalition of the willing."

April 1 2003

Japan anti-war sentiment up [asahi.com] 65% say they do not support the U.S.-led war against Iraq. Japanese public opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq has grown, according to the latest telephone survey conducted by The Asahi Shimbun.

March 31 2003

Spring in Japan is encapsulated in one thing: sakura - cherry blossoms. Across Tokyo, parks that last week were barren and empty are suddenly crowded with happy people, competing for the prime spots directly under the beautiful blossoming trees to drink sake and eat onegiri. It's like evil has no power under a blossoming cherry tree. People forget the mundane routine of their day-to-day lives, and are almost totally disconnected from the real world.

Today I was with some friends in one of the larger and more central parks, Yoyogi Koen. We'd had a picnic, kicked a soccer ball around, and at this point were just loitering while the two young boys went to the toilet, when a Nihonjin heading to use the same facilities caught sight of me.

"America-jin!" he growled and spat at the ground, then sheepishly turned away toward the toilet. My Nihongo isn't good enough to have allowed me to rebutt him, so I started to respond in English. He suddenly found his confidence and launched into a tirade of Japanese, expressing his anger at the war in Iraq, and his anger at me for starting it. To convey his point independantly of language he flourished his tongue, aimed his thumb at the ground, and pointed at his arse a few times. The Japanese friend I was standing with called out to him in Japanese that I am not American, which stopped him in his tracks for a second, before he decided the best way to save face was to carry on regardless for a while, before slinking away into the toilet.

My Japanese friends told me not to worry about it, but I'd already resolved it in my head by then. My first response was to defend myself. "I'm not American! I don't deserve your ire." My next response was to defend Americans. "They aren't George Bush! They don't deserve your ire." But in the end, what I really wanted to be able to say was: "Thankyou for having the balls to shout your opposition."

March 29 2003

Perhaps as many as 3,000 march in Shibuya. These marches vary in size, but always have a large and noisy gaijin contingent. I think people are becoming increasingly frustrated by police attempts to minimise the marchers' intrusion into shoppers' lives.

March 24 2003

As I walk past the Hachiko statue in Shibuya, this sunny Monday, the peace protestors who've been clogging the square the past few weekends are nowhere to be seen. Activism is largely a weekend hobby for Nihonjin, and like many hobbies, they take to it with a unique enthusiasm. For instance the Raelian's, a largely female intergalactic cult in the news lately with claims of successful human cloning were marking their opposition to the war in Iraq last Friday, in this very square, by cutting holes in each other's tshirts, exposing bras and breasts.

Japanese Anit-war groups:

http://www.worldpeacenow.jp/
http://www.peace2001.org/