September 21, 2019

More than 5,000 young people on September 20 took to the streets in 23 prefectures, including Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, to join the “Global Climate March” action calling for urgent measures to tackle the climate crisis, according to the international environmental NGO 350.org Japan.

This youth-led global action is rooted in a weekly Friday strike which 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg began in August 2018 in front of the national parliament building to demand more government measures to fight against global warming. In the runup to the UN Climate Action Summit scheduled to be held on September 23, more than 5,200 climate protests will take place in at least 150 countries.

On September 20 in Tokyo, 2,800 people, including high school students, assembled near the UN University in Shibuya. Holding placards that read, “Act now for today’s children, and their children!” the 2,800 participants marched through the downtown area.

An 18-year-old college student, who learned of the action on Twitter, said, “The Japanese government’s attitude toward the climate issue is awful because its target for cuts in CO2 emissions is too low and its energy policy heavily depends on thermal power generation.”

Wearing a T-shirt with a handwritten ecology logo, a 44-year-old man living in Yamanashi participated in the march with his 9-year-old daughter. The girl said, “I really agree with Greta’s opinion that our planet can’t survive if action isn’t taken.”

Japanese Communist Party Upper House member Kira Yoshiko walked with the marchers holding a placard reading, “Stop global warming!”

In Kyoto, in response to a call from the youth group “Friday for Future in Kyoto”, about 300 people of different nationalities and ages gathered and marched through downtown areas.

A 17-year-old female high school student living in Kyoto’s neighboring prefecture of Shiga participated in the march with her mother. She referred to her experience as an overseas student at an Australian high school. She said that during her stay in Australia, it was normal for her to take part in activities regarding environmental issues, and added, “I hope more and more people in Japan will engage in activities dealing with climate change issues.”

In Osaka, more than 400 people paraded through the city’s downtown areas by shouting “Protect the future of Earth!”, “The Paris agreement is cool!” in Osaka dialect.

At a rally held prior to the parade, Kobayashi Masamichi of the youth group “Friday for Future Osaka” which organized the parade pointed out that Japan lags far behind other nations in climate change actions. He said that his group submitted to the Osaka prefectural and city governments a written request urging them to address the climate crisis issues.

Past related article:
> Japan should drastically shift to renewable energy [June 3, 2019]