Arab News Japan

[video width="848" height="480" mp4="https://www.arabnews.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/Protestvideodba17ef6-48cf-4816-8cf1-2b5710f5aea6-2.mp4"][/video]

TOKYO: Anti-racism protests took place in Tokyo on Saturday, following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black American who died in Minneapolis after being pinned beneath a white police officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes.

Floyd’s death was filmed on camera and shocked the world.

Several hundred people, comprised of both, Japanese and foreigners gathered in the Shibuya district of Tokyo on Saturday to protest  against racial injustice and police violence by the US police.

The protestors chanted anti-racist slogans in Japanese and English, as well as "I can't breathe" to invoke the death of Floyd, and marched through the trendy Shibuya and Ebisu districts of Tokyo, carrying signs in Japanese and English that read, “Justice," "I can't breathe,"and "Black lives matter” to pay tribute to Floyd and others killed by police because of their ethnicity.

During the demonstration, some protesters chanted around a police station in Shibuya, where they said a Kurdish man had been arrested for no apparent reason the previous week. 

According to Reuters, the 33-year-old Turkish man of Kurdish origin had lived in Japan for 15 years and was stopped by police while driving in downtown Tokyo on May 22.

Officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police accompanied the marchers and helped to direct traffic. The demonstrations ended peacefully.