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Updated: 2004-04-08 01:00
   
  Junichiro Koizumi
   
  Koizumi Shrine Visit Said Unconstitutional

Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is used to taking heat from other countries when he goes to the Yasukuni Shrine, a century-old war memorial seen by many Asians as a dark reminder of Japan's militaristic past. But he got an unprecedented rebuke at home this year, when a court ruled he had violated the constitution when he paid his respects at the shrine after taking office three years ago.

Though largely symbolic, the ruling by a regional court was expected to heat up a decades-old debate on the legality and morality of how and where Japanese leaders remember their nation's 2.5 million war dead.

"We feel completely vindicated," said Tsuneaki Gunjima, leader of a group of peace activists and religious organizations who brought the legal challenge. "It clearly acknowledges the prime minister's visit was unconstitutional."

Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine in downtown Tokyo that honors all Japanese who have died in the country's wars - including, most controversially, convicted war criminals from World War II such as Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Koizumi has gone to the shrine four times since becoming prime minister in April 2001, saying he is praying for peace and paying tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for their country.

Visits by Koizumi and his predecessors have unfailingly drawn fire from China, South Korea and other Asian nations with bitter memories of rampaging Japanese armies.

In Japan, peace activists and others have challenged the practice on legal grounds, arguing it violates a constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state.

On Wednesday a district court in the western city of Fukuoka ruled Koizumi had done just that because he was deemed to have visited in his capacity as a public official, not a private citizen.

Koizumi used his title when he signed the shrine's visitors book and arrived at the grounds in a government car.

Japanese courts have sent a mixed message on the issue over the years, however, and Koizumi played down the significance of the lower-court ruling.

"I don't know why it violates the constitution...I'm both a public and private person," he told reporters. "I will continue my visits."

Wednesday's lawsuit was one of six filed by activists in district courts around Japan after Koizumi went to Yasukuni for the first time in August 2001. Two were dismissed, and the other three courts have yet to hand down verdicts.

The government was not expected to appeal because the Fukuoka court ruled in its favor on a second issue: it rejected the plaintiffs' demand for 0,000 in damages for mental anguish allegedly caused by the visit.

A Japanese court first ruled against the government on Yasukuni in 1991, saying that then-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone had violated the constitution by worshipping in an official capacity six years earlier.

Koizumi has blurred the distinction between official and private visits, insisting as he did Wednesday that he pays his respects "as a prime minister and also as an individual."

 

note:

 

Yasukuni Shrine: 靖国神社


militaristic: 军国主义的

 

take office: 就职

 

 

 

 

 


Shinto shrine: 神社

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lawsuit: 诉讼

 

 
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