About 7,000 people attended a rally and demonstration organized by trade unions and peace organizations on December 10 in Tokyo in protest against the government decision to send the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and in defense of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.
The Hibiya Amphitheater was overflowing with workers and students carrying organization flags and a variety of hand-made placards.
Speaking on behalf of the organizers, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) President Kumagai Kanemichi stressed the need to increase grassroots movements to stop the SDF dispatch and defend Article 9.
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his speech said, "War has not ended in Iraq. The whole of Iraq is a battleground. We must not allow Japan to deploy heavily-armed forces to the battlefront."
A leader of the liaison council of air transport unions, who served the SDF when he was young, called on SDF members to reject the prime minister's order to become part of the U.S. -British occupation forces in Iraq because the duty of SDF personnel is to defend the lives and property of the Japanese people from outside attacks.
A message from the president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, which said now is the time for everyone to raise objections, was read out. (end)
