Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Nearly 200 students and trade unionists marched on Tuesday in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo to protest against the G7 summit and Japan’s participation in a meeting of NATO, which is being held from June 29 in Madrid.

With an anti-war platform, the students and trade unionists chanted slogans against the war in Ukraine and the militarization of Japan.

One of the placards read, “Putin, USA and NATO: Stop the War”.

They denounced the participation of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the NATO meeting and his efforts to increase military spending and moves by his political allies to revoke Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which renounces war.

Elections to the House of Councillors on July 10 could give the prime minister a stronger mandate in the Diet.

Putin’s decision to go to war is worrying for the Japanese as Russia occupies four islands in the north of Japan and there is fear that the Nansei Islands could be equipped with medium-range nuclear missiles.

The NATO 2022 Madrid Summit has invited Japan and South Korea to its meeting for the first time.