Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators returned to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's executive mansion in central Tokyo Friday for a weekly rally. The gathering, organised on Facebook and Twitter, has been held every Friday since late March and gathered momentum after Noda approved the restart of two nuclear reactors in western Japan in June.
An AFP reporter estimated the crowd to be in the thousands, nearly 18 months after a massive earthquake and tsunami killed 19,000 and sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. "We will continue calling for this rally at least this month," Taichi Hirano, 27, one of the organisers, told AFP outside the premier's mansion.