Tokyo: The Students for Free Tibet and the Tibetan Community in Japan organised a demonstration and protest event before the Chinese embassy in Tokyo on the morning of 4 July. They recited prayers and shouted slogans demanding ‘Free Tibet’ and the withdrawal of China’s ill-intended Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and to stop repression in Tibet. Japanese supporters joined the protest. The protestors demanded that the CCP regime stop the eradication of Tibetan identity through colonial boarding schools and the Sinicisation of religions. They said the Tibetans and other nationals under Chinese occupation will never accept this draconian law. The demonstration was live-streamed, and some press reporters came to cover the event.

Tibet House Japan, in collaboration with the Tibetan Community in Japan (TCJ), and Students for Free Tibet, organised a prayer and memorial service for Martyr Lobga Rangzen (Lobsang Palden) in the afternoon at Tibet House in Tokyo. Despite the short notice, many Tibetans and Japanese turned up for the prayer and memorial service. Monks from Bhutan and India, Tibetan visitors from India, and a Thai national also participated in the prayer gathering.

A minute of silence was requested to honour Martyr Lobga Rangzen. Dr. Tsewang Gyalpo Arya of the Liaison Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama led the prayers. He thanked the participants for their participation to show their support and solidarity with the Tibetan cause. He said that, more than mourning, Tibetans around the world in free nations should heed the video message where the Martyr has called for unity and unflinching dedication to the common cause.

He informed the gathering about the recent press conference on the Chinese Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and the protests going on around the world and how this law proved to be the last straw for Martyr Lobga to commit self-immolation before the United Nations’ building. Representative Arya read the message of Sikyong Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on Martyr Lobga’s self-immolation.

Dorjee Shiota of the Tibetan Community Japan and Tsering Dorjee of the Students for Free Tibet spoke on how Tibetans in exile should remember Lobga’s last words and protest this Ethnic Unity Law established by the CCP regime to eradicate Tibetan identity, language, and culture through forced assimilation. They requested the Tibetans to rededicate themselves for the common cause. Japanese monk Rev. Endo Ryokyu and monks from Bhutan and India expressed their condolences and solidarity with the Tibetans in their non-violent struggle for peace and justice for their homeland Tibet.

Some media members and YouTubers have shown up at the prayer service and interviewed the participants and did live-streaming of the service.

-Report filed by Office of Tibet, Japan