May Day in Tokyo


NHK reports that about 42,000 people gathered at a rally in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park today. I walked past their parade around noon and tried to take some photos.

In spite of the drizzle the mood seemed to be really good, with banners and floats demanding workers' rights and also showing the union's support for Article 9 of Japan's Peace Constitution (九番まもれ!!）.

This was the 78th May Day event held in Japan.

The rally today was organized by the National Confederation of Trade Unions:

The union's chairman, Mitsuo Bannai, called for a much higher minimum wage and more stable employment to fight the income gap and the problem of the so-called "working poor" who are struggling with low wages. A nurse at the rally said her wage has been going down and she can't take as many holidays as she likes. Many other labor unions also held rallies or marches on Tuesday, while Japan's largest labor organization, Rengo which backs the Democratic Party, staged its May Day rally on Saturday.

Oh yes, and after the rally, they all got seriously drunk and a great time was had by all. ハッピメーデー！

Comments

Pandabonium said…
That's great to see such active support for peace and other worthy ideals. (I like the Gojira costume, too).

We went Kashima Jingu and saw "Yabusame" - archery on horseback. It was awesome.
11:18 am, May 02, 2007
Martin J Frid said…
Wow, Yabusame is something I have been wanting to see for a long time. Japanese archery is very spiritual and totally beyond my humble abilities.

Having said that, there was some awesome spirit at the May Day rally too, glad you liked the post.
9:25 pm, May 02, 2007
Linda said…
Martin, jag undrar om du eventuellt har någon mail-adress man skulle kunna kontakta dig på? Jag har ett par frågor som känns helt orelaterade till våra diverse bloggverksamheter :)
Hör av dig till mig direkt annars: tokyo.tidbits@gmail.com
Tack! :)
11:19 pm, May 02, 2007
Martin J Frid said…
Hej Linda, jag har skrivit till dig, kanske det inte kom fram?
11:54 am, May 05, 2007
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