Goto is part of a larger group of residents who sit on Kanda Police Street through the night regularly in defiance of a decision by Chiyoda, one of Tokyo’s main wards, to cut down 32 ginkgo trees to widen the sidewalk and create a new bicycle path.
Every night, 70-year-old Etsuko Goto takes her place on a small foldable chair in a central Tokyo road to protect a row of around 30 trees from being felled.
“When I heard they were going to be cut down, I knew I had to protect them,” Goto said, as she was setting up for another all-nighter. “They’re such beautiful trees, and it really soothes your soul to see this scenery.”
