I think Mr Akiyama is the headmaster of a nearby school. He came by before the protests to talk Shiraishi into selling the shrine to Mr Wakabayashi. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Mr Akiyama stands to gain something from Mr Wakabayashi, such as funding for the school, or the option to sell the school because Mr Wakabayashi has big plans for the entire area. It just doesn't seem very reasonable that an educated man would otherwise put this much effort into protesting against a religious practice. I mean, what happened to just writing newspaper editorials? ;-)