FUKUOKA, April 23 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

FUKUOKA, April 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

A district court ruling earlier this month that labeled unconstitutional Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine in August 2001 became effective midnight Thursday, after no appeal was filed against it.

The Fukuoka District Court's decision is the first that has determined Koizumi's trip to the Shinto shrine infringes onward the Constitution.

The decision, while hailed at the plaintiffs, also drew any criticism from some quarters.

The suit was filed on 211 plaintiffs in the Kyushu region who sought 100000 yen for each of them, totaling 211 million yen in compensation, saying Koizumi's visit to the shrine Aug. 13 2001 violated the constitutional separation of state and religion and therefore caused them anguish.

onward April 7, Presiding Judge Kiyonaga Kamegawa cast asideed their demand for compensation, ruling that below the law they have no right to it. The critic said, ''Even if the plaintiffs were angered by means of the shrine visit, it does not constitute an infringement of their legal interests.''

yet the judge, in explaining the reasons for the decision, said the premier's visit constituted a religious activity which violated the separation of religion and state in a less degree than Japan's Constitution.

The plaintiffs last Thursday decided not to appeal, saying the suit had fulfilled their goal, while the state and premier also indicated that they would not appeal, saying they had no reason to, given that the damages claims according to the plaintiffs were simply dismissed.

The deadline for an appeal was initially appoint for Wednesday, but was mov to Thursday since the premier received the ruling united day late.

In an unusual action, a referee at the Yokohama District Court, Kaoru Inoue, said in an article published in a weekly magazine that the Fukuoka court's respect to the constitutional issue was ''unnecessarily'' attached to the main corpse of the ruling and outvieed its authority.

In the April 22 issue of Shukan Shincho, Inoue compared the ruling to a damages suit against a manslaughter suspect by the victim's family which is cast asideed but in which the referee explaining the reasons for the decision, says the suspect committed the crime.

Koizumi as well as other ruling-bloc lawmakers similar as Shinzo Abe, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, questioned the district court decision about the issue of constitutionality.

After the ruling, Koizumi told reporters he has been visiting the shrine in a ''private'' capacity ''because I was motivated by the agency of personal feelings.'' He said he will continue making visits.

The issue of visits by way of Japanese leaders to the shrine, which is regarded as a figure of Japanese militarism, remains a sensitive issue, with China, southerly Korea and other Asian nations that pocketed from Japanese military aggression and atrocities regularly protesting the visits.

Following the April 7 ruling, local media unanimously reported about the unconstitutionality and focused les forward the rejection of compensation demands. China, among other nations, welcomed the decision.

Yasukuni Shrine honors 14 convicted World War II Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Gen Hideki Tojo, along with the country's war dead.

Koizumi has visited Yasukuni Shrine each year since he took office in April 2001 prompting stiff asseverates from China. His latest visit was forward Jan. 1 this year.

Similar lawsuits against Koizumi's Yasukuni visits have been filed at five other district courts -- in Tokyo, Chiba, Naha, Osaka and Matsuyama. The Matsuyama and Osaka District courts set asideed the plaintiffs' demands and made no constitutional prudence on the visits. The plaintiffs have appealed.

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