Some 9,000 activists took to the streets of Tokyo on Sunday to protest nuclear power. The march comes as Japanese authorities are considering restarting the country’s nuclear reactors, which were shut down in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

The demonstration ended with a rally in front of the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the operator of the crippled Fukushima power plant. 

Activists chanted “Stop the atom” and “Don’t pollute our sea,” referring to the continued leaking of radioactive water, which Tepco uses to control the temperature of the melted reactor cores at Fukushima. 

The protesters also called on Japanese media to report more often on the situation at the power plant, which was damaged by the 2011 quake and tsunami.

Protestors raise their placards and shout slogans during an anti nuclear demonstration in Tokyo on October 13, 2013.(AFP Photo / Rie Ishii)

Anti-nuclear sentiment has grown massively in Japan since the Fukushima disaster, one of the world’s worst nuclear power incidents. Rallies similar to Sunday’s are held regularly and attract thousands of people. According to opinion polls, some 70 percent of Japanese believe that the country’s nuclear power industry should be closed down. 

The opposition to nuclear power has also affected Tokyo’s national security policies. On Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government said it would consider signing a joint statement by the United Nations calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. 

Japan, officially an anti-militaristic country since its defeat in World War II, has relied for decades on the US nuclear umbrella for protection and has been reluctant to side with international proposals to ban nuclear weapons. But the Japanese government has indicated it may sign a joint UN General Assembly statement next week saying that nuclear weapons should “never [be] used again, under any circumstances.” 

Abe’s government initially said it would not sign the statement, but reviewed its position after the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities that had nuclear bombs dropped on them by the US in 1945, and a number of civic groups urged Tokyo to support it.

Protestors in radiation protection suits bang a drum can during an anti nuclear demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) in Tokyo on October 13, 2013.(AFP Photo / Yoshikazu Tsuno)

Protestors shout slogans and hold placards during an anti nuclear demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) in Tokyo on October 13, 2013. (AFP Photo / Yoshikazu Tsuno)

 

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