Anti-nuclear rally held in Tokyo

A major anti-nuclear protest was held in Tokyo on Sunday, one day before the 2nd anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The natural disaster caused an accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The rally was organized by a civic group that holds weekly demonstrations every Friday in front of the prime minister’s office and the Diet, NHK World reported. The participants began marching from a park in central Tokyo to the government office district. They chanted slogans calling for the abolition of nuclear plants. Similar rallies were held elsewhere in Tokyo and across the rest of the nation, with local media reporting as many as 150 anti-nuclear events planned for the weekend and on Monday. They expressed their opposition to the resumption of nuclear power generation and demanded the closure of all nuclear plants in Japan. The number of demonstrators was smaller than at a similar rally last summer. Public opposition to nuclear power peaked after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Pacific waters in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and unleashed a massive killer tsunami which battered Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. The plant was hit by a meltdown and explosions that severely contaminated the vast farming region and became the worst nuclear accident in a generation. Japan turned off its stable 50 reactors in the wake of the disaster, but restarted two of them citing possible summertime power shortages.