Don't send SDF to Iraq: actions held throughout Japan

A variety of actions were held on the first weekend of December throughout Japan calling for the government's basic plan for the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq to be thwarted.

About 700 people took part in a "Peace Parade" in Tokyo organized by the "Citizens' Urgent Action" organizing committee, marching through the streets of Ginza crowded with shoppers on the afternoon of December 7.

A 41-year-old man who took part in the action with his wife and two children said, "My brother is a SDF member. I'm telling him not to go to Iraq, but he doesn't tell me anything. We must not leave any cause for trouble to our children."

On December 6, in Saitama's Kasukabe City, members of the Japanese Communist Party local branches and the JCP City Assembly members collected signatures in support of the call against the plan to dispatch the SDF. More than120 people, including junior high and high school students, signed the petition within an hour.

On the same day, representatives of religious and peace groups led about 120 residents of Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, to stage a demonstration, holding a big banner that read, "End the occupation of Iraq."

In the evening, about 60 young residents of Tokyo's Nakano Ward held a "Candle Peace Walk".

The New Japan Women's Association in Hyogo Prefecture carried out a demonstration on Sunday afternoon. The streets of downtown Kobe resounded with the voices of about 200 women chanting, "Don't send the SDF to Iraq" and "Defend Article 9." (end)