Four members of Greenpeace International were arrested Friday for trying to reach the venue of the Group of Eight summit in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to protest the destruction of forests, police said.
Three men, from Israel, Japan and the United States, as well as a Russian woman were arrested after landing at an off-limits beach several hundred meters from the Bankoku Shinryokan complex at 1:25 p.m.
The four, who traveled to the area aboard the 555-ton Rainbow Warrior flagship from waters off Nago on Friday morning, approached the beach in smaller vessels, ignoring warnings from law enforcement officials, police said.
The activists' attempt to reach the summit venue is believed to be part of a protest by the environmental group against what it call the subsidization by G8 countries of the destruction of ancient forests.