Anti-nuclear protesters around Japan Parliament

Thousands of demonstrators holding aloft candles and lights formed a human chain around Japan’s parliament yesterday in a new protest against nuclear power after last year’s Fukushima atomic crisis.

The sea of people illuminated the evening gloom as they surrounded the legislature in Tokyo, the latest development in a snowballing protest movement of the type not seen in sedate Japan for decades.

The protesters are demanding that Japan abandon nuclear power and their movement has been galvanised by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s recent decision to resume using atomic energy after a total shutdown.

Organisers put the number of protesters at 200,000, but police told local media that there were between 10,000 and 20,000 people.

With many clad in gas masks and white protective suits similar to those used in decontamination work at the crippled Fukushima plant, the demonstrators earlier took part in a noisy march through the capital to the Parliament.

To the noise of drumming on yellow barrels emblazoned with atomic waste warning symbols, they chanted “we don’t need nuclear power” and “stop operating nuclear plants”.

“After the Fukushima disaster, I thought that the government and vested interests were telling us lies about nuclear power being safe,” said protester Miho Igarashi, 46, an architect from Ibaraki prefecture.