Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Thousands of demonstrators, mostly from Japanese anti-nuclear and peace movements, took to the streets in central Tokyo to protest the war in Ukraine.

Residents from Ukraine participated, including a woman who was evacuated following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 under the Soviets. She expressed sympathy and common cause with the Fukushima residents who had been evacuated.

Anti-nuclear songs in Japanese and Ukrainian echoed in the streets where the protestors moved.

Investigative journalist and a prominent figure in Japanese civil society, Satoshi Kamata, expressed concern to the crowd that if a bombing of a nuclear power plant took place in Ukraine, a major radiological disaster could occur that would affect the world.

A Japanese woman who was a member of a liaison committee with children in Chernobyl who are even after so many years still becoming ill as a consequence of that disaster, expressed her concern, saying that since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, those children no longer had access to essential medical care and also lacked medicine.

More than a dozen nuclear reactors are currently operating in Ukraine providing 54 percent of the country’s need for electricity. Participants expressed concern over the possibility of the war reaching these nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhia and Chernobyl.