Protestor Mr Toguchi in Okinawa

Mr. Takekiyo Toguchi, 58 years old, Road Contractor for Nago City. 19 years ago he had his first child. Over time it made him think about their future. Eventually he decided to start his own protest 11 years ago, the Peace Candle Protest. Unlike the other protest groups his happened every Saturday evening and it took on a calmer note. He wanted to find a way to involve the children and the other protests were sometimes too aggressive. This was a gentle way to express their feelings publicly. Despite having his road contracting business, he felt he should still express that he was anti-Henoko.

He felt it was also important to demonstrate to other similar businesses as his that it was possible to survive without contracts that involved the expansion of US Military bases. Ironically he actually has more work now than before. He reasons that many businesses went bust as they waited for a long time to get confirmation about the expansion of the US military base.

Initially when he first started the Peace Candle Protest many of his colleagues in the same business said he was crazy to do such a thing and that he would end up isolating himself and ultimately not surviving because he would jeopardise his chances of getting contracts from the government. He says in the first 6 months to a year, his wife ended up supporting the family because he could not get any contracts. Not long ago he was asked to survey the land in Camp Schwab where they would build the airstrips. He was offered 20% of the actual construction cost for the particular job he was asked to survey. He turned the job down.