Japan Press Weekly

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2014 September 3 - 9 [POLITICS]

5,500 people rally to protect Article 9 and demand PM Abe’s resignation

On September 4, the day the reshuffled Cabinet of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was inaugurated, 5,500 people assembled at Hibiya Amphitheater in Tokyo to hold a rally calling to protect Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and push Abe to resign as prime minister.

The rally was called for by two civil groups working to defend Article 9 and opposing Abe’s militaristic policies.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo delivered a solidarity speech.

Shii called on the participants to strengthen the public movement to protest the Abe Cabinet decision to enable Japan to use the collective self-defense right and force the Cabinet to retract the decision.

Pointing out that the Abe government’s runaway policies in various fields have been conflicting with public demand, the JCP chair stressed the need to strengthen and unify the single-issue joint struggles into a national movement aiming to bring down the Abe government.

Other guest speakers included parliamentarians of the Social Democratic and Democratic parties, a lawyer of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, writers, and university professors.

A university student, who took part in a rally of this kind for the first time, said, “People of my generation may be sent to wars. The rally motivated me to learn more about the collective self-defense right.”

After the rally, the participants marched in demonstration through Tokyo’s major shopping district Ginza to increase public support for the retraction of the Cabinet decision without delay.