Citizens raise voice against SDF dispatch

On January 18, the day before the opening of the Ordinary Session of the Diet, members of peace, democratic, and women's organizations, union representatives, and people of faith converged on the Diet on the previous day in protest against the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

More than 1,000 people marched in demonstration to the Diet after a "lunch-break rally" in Hibiya Park. At the Diet Building, they handed the Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers about 1.6 million signatures in opposition to the SDF dispatch, adverse revisions of the Constitution and the pension system. Not in the last 10 years have so many signatures been submitted to the Diet at its opening.

In Osaka City, more than 200 activists took part in a "lunch-time demonstration" calling for the cancellation of the SDF dispatch.

About 2,000 people assembled at the Asaka Ground Self-Defense Forces Base and shouted opposition to the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq. JCP House of Councilors member Togashi Renzo spoke in solidarity with the demonstrators. The participants also called for the Japan-U.S. forces joint exercises scheduled for January 21 at the base to be cancelled.

On January 20, members of four youth organizations jointly carried out a signature drive in front of Shibuya railway station demanding that Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro stop sending the SDF to Iraq. The four organizations were the Japan Young Lawyers Association Attorneys and Academics Section, the Democratic Youth League of Japan, the Japan League of Socialist Youth, and the Japan Seinendan Council. (end)