More than 80 percent of about 1,700 people who had contacted City Hall as of Tuesday back Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to tax Tokyo's major banks. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the city had received 1,674 phone calls and letters as of Tuesday, with 83 percent of them supporting the governor's plan. On Wednesday, Tokyo residents came to City Hall to watch Ishihara's policy speech, filling all 186 seats in the metropolitan assembly gallery. The plan is virtually certain to clear the assembly. After listening to Ishihara's 45-minute speech, many residents appeared supportive of the governor's ideas. But outside the hall, about 3,800 people formed a "human chain" to surround the metropolitan government building to protest its plans to cut financing for welfare programs. The rally was sponsored by labor unions. Kizo Inoue, 69, who is visually impaired, criticized Ishihara for not touching on the issue of Tokyo's waterfront development projects, which he called the major cause of the city's fiscal deficits. "I wanted to hear exactly how the metro government will use the tax money (from the major banks)," he said.
