Four members of the environmentalist group Greenpeace International were arrested Tuesday after scaling a tower near an incinerator plant in Tokyo to protest Japan's waste-incineration policies, police and group members said.
The four had apparently used mountaineering equipment to scale the outside of the 11-story elevator tower adjacent to the incineration plant. The facility, operated by Toshima Ward, is in the ward's Kami-Ikebukuro district.
Near the top, the climbers dropped a large banner proclaiming Tokyo the world's "dioxin capital."
After they descended, they were arrested on suspicion of trespassing.
A Greenpeace spokesman said the four people taken into custody were from Belgium, Britain, China and the Netherlands and that several other activists at the site voluntarily went to a police station for questioning.
In a statement, Greenpeace said the act was in protest at "Japan's reckless waste-incineration policy."
"Japan's mindless incineration program has virtually become a high-priced dioxin manufacturing scheme whose effects the government has been unable to deal with in a significant way," the statement said.
Shiro Yakushiji, manager of the the incineration plant, condemned the stunt, saying, "We incinerate under strict, voluntary controls."
Tests have found that the burning of some waste produces dioxin, toxic chemicals believed to cause cancer and deformities.