© Kyodo News, via Associated Press
Thousands of protesters gathered outside the Japanese prime minister's residence in Tokyo on June 29.
Shouting antinuclear slogans and beating drums, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the prime minister's residence on Friday, in the largest display yet of public anger at the government's decision to restart a nuclear power plant.
The crowd, including women with small children and men in suits coming from work, chanted "No more Fukushimas!" as it filled the broad boulevards near the residence and the national Parliament building, which were cordoned off by the police.
Estimates of the crowd's size varied widely, with organizers claiming 150,000 participants, while the police put the number at 17,000. Local media estimated the crowd at between 20,000 and 45,000, which they described as the largest protest in central Tokyo since the 1960s.
Protests of any size are rare in Japan, which has long been politically apathetic. However, there has been growing discontent among many Japanese who feel that Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda ignored public concerns about safety this month when he
ordered the restarting of the Ohi power station in western
Japan.
Ohi was the first plant to go back online since last year's accident in Fukushima led to the idling of all of Japan's 50 operational nuclear reactors, which supplied a third of the nation's electricity. Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant melted down after a huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out crucial cooling systems.
