Tens of thousands of people rallied over the weekend in a central Tokyo park to protest the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposed pandemic treaty and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) — proposals that critics allege threaten Japan’s and other countries’ national sovereignty.

Citizen’s Association against the Pandemic Treaty organized the rally, with help from the World Council of Health (WCH) Japan, according to historian and author Chikatsu Hayashi and Masayasu Inoue, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of molecular pathology and medicine at Osaka City University Medical School.

The rally called for Japan’s withdrawal from the WHO. Participants also opposed the “pandemic treaty” and IHR amendments and the Japanese government’s public health policies, Hayashi and Inoue, who both spoke at the rally, told The Defender.