Two weeks ago, prime minister Yoshihiko Noda announced the decision to restart the nuclear reactors in Ōi (Fukui). And today at 9pm Japanese time the first reactor out of 52 has been officially restarted. This has been accompanied by the most massive protests Japan has seen since the 1960s: not only in Ōi but nationwide hundreds of thousands of people gathered, shouting “No restart” or “Stop Noda”.

On Friday, June 29, more than 150.000 people gathered in front of Noda’s residence in Tokyo. The demonstration has been organized by the Metropolitan Coalition against Nukes, which has been active since March 2012, gathering 45.000 people just one week ago. For more than three months they have been organizing peaceful demonstrations against the restart of nuclear reactors in Japan. But their last demonstration sure was a miracle: Despite of the masses of people, nobody got hurt or arrested.

150.000 people gathering in front of the Japanese prime minister's residence on June 29.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people tried to block the entrance to the reactors in Ōi and stop workers from entering the power plant. And of course people protested in other Japanese cities, in Ōsaka for example. Live streams via Ustream made it possible to follow these demonstrations all over Japan for the whole weekend.

Under the slogan “Stop nuclear power plants! Stop Noda!” the Amateurs’ Revolt, which we focussed on in RADIOACTIVISTS, held a demonstration as well on July 1. You can see some pictures here.
Another action took place at the other side of the world: In New York, people from Todos Somos Japon showed solidarity with the Japanese protesters and conducted a hunger strike in front of the Japanese consulate.

Articles in English are also available in Mainichi and the NY Times.