TOKYO (Sputnik) – Some 30,000 people took part in a yearly May Day rally in Tokyo’s central Yoyogi park, protesting against the controversial TPP trade deal among other issues, national work unions’ federation Zenroren said in a statement on Sunday.
The main slogans of the demonstrators concerned higher wage demands and improvement of workers’ living standards. The protesters also criticized the government's economic policy, in particular Tokyo’s decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal.
The TPP agreement was signed by 12 nations, including Japan, in February 2016, but still requires approval from the US Congress. If implemented, the free trade agreement will encompass 40 percent of the global economy.
Critics of the TPP deal claim that it undermines domestic companies, laws, regulations and institutions through an extra-judicial process that stacks the deck in favor of multinational corporations.
