Japan: Practitioners Join with Citizen's Support Network to Hold A Signature Collecting Activity to Rescue Yoko Kaneko

On May 24, Falun Dafa practitioners in Kinki City and the Citizen's Support Network of Osaka City organised a signature-collecting event at Umeda-one in the busiest area in Osaka for the purpose of rescuing Yoko Kaneko, who was arrested last May in China when she was delivering flyers revealing the facts of persecution of Falun Gong.

At 11am, a News Conference was held at the event site. A joint statement was read.

The statement points out that Yoko Kaneko has been illegally detained for one year and remains in detention. The persecution of Falun Gong has entered its fourth year, and the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have been persecuted to death is increasing daily. Even according to current Chinese law, it is illegal to detain Yoko Kaneko and persecute Falun Gong. Jiang Zemin's regime has always been lying on the Falun Gong issue in order to deceive people. Noting that the persecution death toll has been increasing, the life of Yoko Kaneko is in danger. The statement appeals to all walks of Japanese society to offer a hand to help gain the early release of Yoko Kaneko, and let her come back to Japan.

The Kansai Telecasting Corp reported the signature collecting activity and showed it in the evening news program.

In the event, many people actively signed their names. The event was similar to the last signature collecting at Shiga, except for signature paper, the method used by the Hiroshima Dafa practitioners was adopted. In which people were asked to leave their signatures and ideas on a piece of yellow cloth printed with "SOS, please sign to rescue Yoko Kaneko" and the local city name. When the event came to an end, the two 120cm x 93cm yellow cloth have been densely signed with names and written thoughts.

Script of TV news report of the event:

To rescue a Chinese woman who is detained in the forced labour camp in China, today supporters gather at Umeda of Osaka City to collect signatures.

Four years ago, Yoko Kaneko married a Japanese man and came to Japan. Last May, she was detained in China while she was delivering flyers about the facts of persecution of Falun Gong.

According to Yoko Kaneko's family member who visited her last August, Yoko Kaneko was very weak with injuries visible on her waist. Supporter said Yoko Kaneko is in hospital right now. She is probably most likely being tortured. They appealed to China to release Yoko Kaneko immediately.