Japanese protesters march against nuclear energy

2012-12-15 54

An anti-nuclear protest Japanese style as campaigners take to the streets ahead of the country's first national election since the Fukushima disaster.

The protest included the leader of the newly-formed Tomorrow Party, Yukiko Kada, a governor in Western Japan and a former environmental sociology professor.

Her party wants to shut down all nuclear reactors within 10 years - much sooner than the ruling Democratic Party's goal to phase out nuclear power by the 2030s.

With polls showing the pro-nuclear energy Liberal Democratic Party on track for victory in Sunday's election, Kada urged protesters not to forget the double disaster that hit Japan in 2011.

"Let's get angry", she says. "We have to have the LDP reflect on what they've done and apologize to the children, forest, and land of Fukushima. Who's taken responsibility?"

Protesters also marched in front of the headquarters of the Fukushima Daichi plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company - who many blame for the disaster.

Three reactors melted down at the plant following the devastating tsunami of March, 2011, causing the worst radiological disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.