Last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling right-wing-conservative coalition won a majority of seats in Japan’s upper house election last Sunday. Depressing? Yes. Bad for Japan (and the world)? Yes. But elections are not just black-and-white, winner-takes-it-all events. We can give in to feelings of defeat, or we can shift our attention to all the good that came out of this election.
. Ours is a city in India which has witnessed the world’s worst industrial catastrophe. As you may be aware, the disaster,itself a result of criminal neglect by callous profiteers, was only followed by political complacency and administrative apathy. The victims of Bhopal continue to struggle for justice, adequate compensation and proper medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation In our city, we have a commemorative statue of a mother and her child with “No More Bhopal, No More Hiroshima” written beneath it. And in the fifth year of the ongoing disaster in Fukushima, we can identify with the continued suffering and struggles of its residents.
Jacinta Hin | People are listening. The opposition is listening. Their determined enthusiasm is rubbing off. Japan’s youth has reinvigorated protest in Japan and inspired an entire nation to reclaim their say in the country’s course. The zest for democracy is back. Just look at these photos. They speak for themselves.
The revolution will not be televised, they say, but this one was — and publicised, a lot. And yet, for all the hundreds of thousands who gathered at the Diet and all around Japan over the summer, for all the placards in the streets and the cow-walking in the parliament in September — the security bills still passed.
To coincide with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s speech at UN General Assembly on 9/29, the Japanese peace activists organised under the banner of OVERSEAs and also pro-pacifism U.S. citizens will protest against dilution of the pacifist constitution of Japan.
![[Sign petition on White House Website] – Stop landfill work in Okinawa until a referendum can be held!](http://www.asiaprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Okinawa-landfill-henoko-90x75.jpg)
