TOKYO — Thousands of people formed a human chain around Japan’s Parliament complex Sunday to demand the government abandon nuclear power, the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations on a scale not seen in the nation for decades.
Also Sunday, voters went to the polls in a closely watched election for governor of southwestern Yamaguchi prefecture, where an outspoken antinuclear candidate was running. Japanese media reported his loss late Sunday, citing exit polls.
The results were encouraging for the antinuclear camp, with a strong showing by Tetsunari Iida (35 percent of the votes, according to the public broadcaster NHK, with 99 percent of the votes counted) in a region considered to be a conservative stronghold.
Protesters said they were angry the government restarted two reactors earlier this month despite safety worries after the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March last year. The reactors were the first to return to operation since May, when the last of Japan’s 50 working reactors went offline for routine checks.
Banging on drums and waving balloons and banners, protesters marched from a Tokyo park and lined up along the streets around the Parliament building chanting, ‘‘Saikado hantai,’’ or ‘‘No to restarts,’’ and later lit candles.
‘‘All these people have gotten together and are raising their voices,’’ said Shoji Kitano, 64, a retired math teacher who was wearing a sign that read, ‘‘No to Nukes.’’
Kitano said he had not seen such massive demonstrations since the 1960s. He stressed that ordinary Japanese usually don’t demonstrate, but were outraged over the restarting of nuclear power.
Similar demonstrations have been held outside the prime minister’s residence every Friday evening.