Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Around 150 pro-Palestinian demonstrators organized a “die-in” in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo on Thursday.

The students protested Japan’s decision to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after accusations were made by Israel that the agency’s staff had participated in the attack and massacres of Israelis on Oct. 7.

The demonstrators also criticized the Israeli military’s attack on a refugee camp in Rafah.

Signs carried by the demonstrators said the international community must impose sanctions on Israel after the International Court of Justice’s ruling, which requested binding sanctions to help prevent the risk of genocide. 

A citizen from an anti-arms collective declared that citizen oversight was necessary and that it should be possible to cancel a memorandum between a Japanese company and an Israeli company for a transfer of military equipment.

This activist said he was concerned about the recent bill in Japan on “revealing economic secrets, a violation of which can carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.”

He said this allows Japanese arms companies to “cover up contracts” made with a “genocidal regime.”