Japan: Anti-Persecution "Millions of Signatures" Presented to Local Governments

The 2008 Anti-persecution "Millions of Signatures" Global Campaign was completed in late July 2008. Since then, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) has begun presenting the collected signatures to government bodies in Japan.

On August 20th, soon after the CIPFG Asia Branch presented the signatures to the Prime Minister of Japan and Olympic Committee of Japan, it began presenting the signatures to city governments in Kinki area.

On that date, representatives from CIPFG Japan visited Shiga Prefecture county government and capitol city Otsu city government, and presented officials with the "Petition for help to end the persecution of Falun Gong in China" and the documents with over a million signatures. The county government officials and the Otsu city government officials listened to a brief background and purpose of the event and accepted the petition letter and signatures. The officials said they have heard about the persecution of Falun Gong but were extremely shocked to hear that the CCP is harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners.

In the afternoon, the representatives went to Kyoto City and met with city government and city council officials. The relevant officials talked to the representatives and accepted the petition and signatures. They said they would read the petition and the attached documents and pay attention to the severe human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

On August 22nd, the representatives visited Hyogo Prefecture, and Ashiya City, Nishinomiya City, Amagasaki City, and Itami City, among others. They visited city governments as well as the city councils to present the petition letter and signatures. All governments willingly accepted the petition and said that they would continue to pay attention to the on-going persecution of Falun Gong in China.