One of the basic jobs of any journalist is to cover public demonstrations. Not only do they make for great stories, they also provide the reporter with a chance to play amateur social anthropologist by observing how the individuals and groups involved interact with each other, and the public, before, during and after the protest itself.

As the nuclear power plants owned by Kansai Electric Power Co. and other utilities head toward restart, we've heard much about the return of the nuclear power village. However, we've heard less about the traditional, elderly and semi-professional antinuclear activists also making a return, so to speak.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture four years ago, a broad range of citizens in Kansai and the rest of the country chose to start protesting nuclear power. They weren't the typical, sometimes jaded activists of the past who have decades of experience demonstrating. They were simply earnest citizens spontaneously exercising their democratic rights, and the way they interacted with the seasoned marchers was interesting.