UNION WORKERS STAGE SIT-IN DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENTARIANS' BUILDING IN TOKYO, 1999-04-21 (photo)

Japanese union workers, hoisting red union flags and banners bearing slogans, stage a sit-in demonstration against revisions to two-decade-old guidelines for U.S.-Japan defence cooperation, in front of a parliamentarians' building in Tokyo April 21. Political parties this week moved into what Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi hopes will be the final stage of talks on the revisions. Nudged by the United States and prodded by its own defence concerns, Japan is tiptoeing toward an explanded role in regional security affairs - once a taboo topic due to its pacifist post-war constitution. TA/DL/WS