Yesterday, March 1, a huge number of people had gathered around Gardens.
Here↓
Around 5:30 p.m. This is Takamatsu Hinata Green Space in front of Gardens. Doesn’t it look like an unusually large crowd?
Were there more police officers than usual?? There were also lots of people with tripods. I had to leave the area myself because I was covering the horse at Gardens.
When I came back around 6 p.m.,
A yellow standout car. Ahhh, I see now!
It looks like Tachibana-san of the NHK Party, who is running in the Chiba gubernatorial election, was giving a speech.
In the past, Governor Motohiko Saito and Shinzo Abe have given speeches here, drawing massive crowds. And once again, there was quite a crowd.
When Motohiko Saito spoke here, it felt like everyone was quietly listening, but this time the atmosphere was a little different.
There were quite a few people from the opposition side, and it stood out that some were holding up rather intense placards and heckling.
On the deck side leading to Gardens, it wasn’t packed like it was when Saito-san came, but there were still a fair number of people watching.
At one point, there were heckles and chants telling him to go home, and there were moments during the speech when it was hard to hear what was being said. Personally, I found that a bit troubling.
Even in that hard-to-hear situation, he listened to questions from people and gave proper answers, which felt like a pretty unusual style. Most speeches are one-way, after all.
Also, Nippon TV was there covering it. They were interviewing various people, so it might show up in some TV report later.
Fukumaro-san, a very well-known YouTube streamer, was also there, calmly livestreaming as usual. It seems he got confronted by people from the opposition side? I felt a bit sorry for him… I didn’t notice it at the time…
After the speech ended, just like the last time Tachibana-san held an event here, people were taking photos with him. It’s kind of unusual, isn’t it?
They had even made a new “End of the Line” placard, which wasn’t there before.
After the speech ended, the police officers who had come to assist also withdrew. During the speech, they were calling out to keep the roads safe, and there were some disputes between supporters and opponents, but they handled everything very calmly. I really thought, “As expected.”
Even after the speech ended, people from each side’s group stayed behind, and there were more disputes, with police having to step in again. I hope everyone can get along.
Well, it was definitely a very unusual scene that you don’t often see in Nishinomiya.
