As thousands of people around Japan gathered on June 11 to call for a move away from nuclear energy, Eiji Oguma, a sociologist who is also a professor at Keio University, told the crowd in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, "Let's have fun!"
As thousands of people around Japan gathered on June 11 to call for a move away from nuclear energy, Eiji Oguma, a sociologist who is also a professor at Keio University, told the crowd in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, "Let's have fun!"
That seemed to set the tone for the day, as this new style of demonstration around Japan was in sharp contrast to past protests that were much more serious.
For about two hours from 6 p.m., about 20,000 people who had participated in demonstrations in other locations of the Tokyo metropolitan area, gathered in the square in front of the Alta building outside the east exit of Shinjuku Station.
The people used different methods to get their message across, with some playing music while others grabbed microphones to make their appeal.
There were some participants of an older age who came with the banners of labor unions while younger participants strummed their guitars or beat on drums.
The mixture of old and new styles of demonstrating was kept under the watchful eye of a tight police security deployment.
The style employed by the younger participants has its roots in demonstrations in 2003 against the war in Iraq in which disc jockeys and bands played loud music from speaker cars while parading along with demonstrators.
Another participant in the daytime march in Shinjuku earlier that day was Kojin Karatani, a noted literary critic. When he said he had not participated in a demonstration in about 50 years since the protests in 1960 against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the crowd responded loudly.
"Even though I knew nuclear plants were dangerous I did nothing," Karatani said. "I walked today out of a sense of taking responsibility for that lapse."
While about 300,000 people surrounded the Diet building in 1960 to protest the revision of the security treaty, that would be the peak of demonstrations in Japan after World War II.
There were also violent student demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, but in looking back on those days, Karatani said, "Because demonstrations by the student movement became so radical, ordinary citizens could not take part."
While Karatani said he could not get used to the demonstrations of today with all the loud music, he was positive about the trend toward having a mixture of various styles.
"Everyone should participate in the protest of their choice that matches their likes," Karatani said.
Another participant in the Shinjuku daytime demonstration was Hidemi Suga, a literary critic who was an active participant of the student movement of the 1960s.
Suga was skeptical about the intentions of today's protesters and said, "While they call for a move away from nuclear energy, it is strange that there was no one who raised their voice in support of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, even though he stopped operations at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant and has begun to show a stance of moving away from nuclear energy."
There were very few voices calling on those gathered to aggressively take part in the political process, a reflection of the fact that the demonstrations emerged without being based on instructions given by political parties or major labor unions.
The protests on June 11 marked three months from the Great East Japan Earthquake that also led to the serious accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Demonstrations in a total of 121 locations attracted a total of about 60,000 people, according to organizers.
One reason for the variety of demonstrations today may lie in the ease with which people can access information about various demonstrations through the spread of Twitter.
With notices of the demonstrations being transmitted through the Internet, people in other nations also used the date to hold their own protests against nuclear energy. In total, 11 nations and regions, including France, saw some sort of anti-nuclear demonstrations on June 11.
Unlike past demonstrations, there was no central venue for the June 11 demonstrations in Japan. In Tokyo alone, there were three locations that initially attracted at least 1,000 people.
In other areas of Japan, gatherings ranging from several dozens to several hundreds were held to call for a move away from nuclear energy.
The next issue facing those who took part in the June 11 demonstrations will be finding a way to continue with the demonstrations in order to achieve their objective.