Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Hundreds of Japanese and foreign residents protested on Friday and Saturday in various Tokyo locations against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. Nationalists and pacifists, who usually confront each other in Japan, tried to deliver a letter of protest to the Embassy.

The protesters included Anastasia, a young girl from Kyiv who has been working in Tokyo for four years. She said her brother, who lives in Kyiv, saw a missile fall near his home and had to put on a gas mask as the explosion blew out the windows of a building near the bombardment.

She says she is very worried about seeing the places from her childhood that she knew now turned into rubble wearing a traditional Ukrainian outfit. She blames politicians and seeks comfort from her compatriots.

Demonstrators demanded an end to the war in Ukraine and the return of peace to the country.

A German teacher in Tokyo said she was sorry for the situation and that in 2022 it was unfortunate that armed conflict was the only option to settle a territorial dispute between two nations.

Meanwhile, more than 2000 demonstrators brandished the Ukrainian flags’ yellow and blue colors filled the Shibuya district chanting Ukrainian anthem with their hands on their hearts.

A few Russian and Belarusian women expressed their shame that governments have declared war on Ukraine and that Putin does not represent what Russians or many Belarusian citizens think.