About 2,000 people rallied Saturday in a downtown Tokyo park to mark the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and demand that Japanese and other coalition troops pull out, a protest organizer said.
The rally is one of several planned around the world to condemn the occupation of Iraq, and follows a similar protest of about 500 people who marched through the streets of Sydney.
About 2,000 demonstrators turned out in Tokyo, carrying signs saying "Stop the Occupation" as they listened to a series of antiwar speeches, said Takeshiko Tsukushi, a member of World Peace Now who helped plan the rally. Tokyo Metropolitan Police were unable to immediately confirm the turnout numbers.