Protesters demand that Japan save 1000s of trees by revising a design plan for a popular Tokyo park

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Dozens of demonstrators against a divisive plan to redevelop a beloved Tokyo park are forming a human chain outside the Japanese Education Ministry to demand a revision. The protest Sunday was a show of opposition against the plan demonstrators said would threaten thousands of trees. Sunday’s protest came just after Tokyo’s Gaien area was designated for redevelopment and then was placed on a “heritage alert” on Sept. 7 by a United Nations-affiliated conservancy. The International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS, has drawn mounting support, including from such cultural figures as novelist Haruki Murakami and dozens of academics, writers and architects.