Japan court rejects damage suit for PM shrine visit

TOKYO - A Japanese court has rejected a lawsuit seeking compensation from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the governor of Tokyo for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.

The Tokyo District Court did not rule on whether the visits violated the constitutional separation of religion and state, they said.

The verdict comes just days after Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao met to try to mend ties between the two Asian giants, which had slid to their worst in decades due to a series of feuds partly over Japan's handling of its wartime history.

"They did not judge whether it was constitutional or not and it was an unforgiveable ruling," said Akira Ibori, a lawyer for the more than 1000 plaintiffs, including some 700 South Koreans.

"When China is questioning (Japan's) historical awareness, this is a big issue that will develop into a diplomatic problem," he told reporters.

Each of 1,047 plaintiffs had sought 30,000 yen ($394) each in compensation for damages from Koizumi and from Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who also paid his respects at the shrine.

Among the South Korean plaintiffs were relatives of those who were enshrined in Yasukuni after being conscripted into Japan's Imperial Army and being killed in the war.

Several other similar suits seeking compensation have been rejected. In April last year, the Fukuoka District Court in southwestern Japan said Koizumi had violated the constitution by visiting the shrine in August 2001, but rejected demands for damages.

Koizumi shrugged off the Fukuoka ruling, but has yet to visit Yasukuni this year. "I will make an appropriate decision," he told reporters on before the ruling was handed down.

Koizumi has repeatedly stated that his visits are to pray for peace and that Japan should never go to war again.

Fourteen "Class A" war criminals convicted by an Allied tribunal in 1948 are enshrined at Yasukuni along with Japan's approximately 2.5 million war dead. Among them is wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Ties with China chilled markedly after Koizumi took office in 2001 and began annual visits to Yasukuni, angering domestic critics and many in South Korea and China, where bitter memories of Japan's past military aggression and occupation run deep.

Anti-Japanese demonstrations erupted across China earlier this month after Japan approved textbooks critics said glossed over its wartime atrocities. Protestors also opposed Tokyo's campaign for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

The fractious ties put at risk economic links worth $212 billion in annual trade.

Koizumi held talks with Hu in Jakarta on Saturday to try to mend fences, a day after he made an unusually public apology for Japan's past atrocities at an Asia-Africa summit.

In a separate ruling on another contentious topic, the Fukuoka District Court in southern Japan said that it was constitutional for a city government to have ordered teachers to sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem at school ceremonies.

But the court ordered the city to rescind salary cuts imposed on some teachers as punishment for refusing to sing the anthem.

The melancholy anthem, whose title translates as "His Majesty's Reign", is seen as by some in Japan and elsewhere in Asia as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government issued a directive in 2003 saying high school teachers must stand and sing the anthem at school ceremonies or face punishment.

Last year, more than 200 Tokyo teachers were punished for refusing and some were ordered to attend "re-education sessions" that included listening to speeches about their responsibilities as civil servants. More than 50 have been punished this year.

Emperor Akihito gingerly stepped into the controversy on Monday, telling a news conference: "Regarding the national anthem and national flag, it is best if individual citizens think about the matter themselves."

- REUTERS