Arab News Japan

TOKYO: A demonstration by hundreds of young workers and students close to Japan’s opposition parties took place in front of parliament on Friday.

The protestors demanded the dismissal of the government, which has become entangled in a series of slush fund scandals by the majority Liberal-Democratic Party.

The demonstrators chanted the slogan “Sayonara Jimin” (goodbye Liberal-Democratic Party) and demanded that the current Minister of Education MORIYAMA Masahito be dismissed as his electoral campaign had financial support from members of the scandal-hit Unification Church.

Around a hundred Liberal-Democratic Party legislators have been named by investigative reports, yet all remain in their posts. An activist from the Shimin Rengo workers’ movement told Arab News Japan: “If these corrupt politicians remain in place, nothing can change.”

The protesting students said that the rising cost of living and high taxes meant that they could not even think of having children, and it was time to change the country’s corrupt politics.

They also shouted in defense of the Palestinian people, who face a risk of genocide by the Israeli occupation army and government.

The group leading the rally called for expanded protests in the country to bring down the government of Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio, whose popularity has declined sharply in recent opinion polls.