Trotz des Regens protestieren 24.000 Menschen vor dem Nationalparlament gegen die Verfassungsänderung und den Angriff auf den Iran

This gives me a little bit of hope, amid the widely pervasive political apathy here.

The last truly large protest in Japan was the 2015 rally against Abe’s changes that allowed the Jieitai to fight not only in self-defense but defense of allies (i.e. the USA). The size at the time was between 30,000 and 120,000 (neither police underestimates or organizer overestimates are reliable). The protests didn’t stop the security reforms but they marked a big shift in public sentiment and led to a marked drop in the PMs approval ratings.

This was probably smaller than the 24,000 organizers claim but its still one of the largest demonstrations Japan has seen since 2015 and, like then, can be taken as a sign that Takaichi is losing ground with people who may have been initially ambivalent to her. If the economic pinch from the Iran conflict truly begins to be felt, and many analysts suggest things will become much more severe and noticeable over the next months, such events might become more commonplace.